Devil's Triangle: Trapped on the Obsidian Rosemary
by Xandra
Summary: IN PROGRESS, REUPLOADED--The guys take a trip on Quatre's new sailboat, but when stranded in the middle of no where by a storm, their last hope turns out to be in the form of a ghost ship (Shonuen ai, horror)
1. The Ghost Ship

The Devil's Triangle: Trapped on the Obsidian Rosemary  
  
By Xandra  
  
Chapter One: Ghost Ship  
  
****  
  
"I hate boats," Wufei scowled.  
  
Trowa looked up from his labors readying the great sails of Quatre's brand- new sailboat. A smirk played across his lips as a familiar braided American leapt onto the back of the complaining boy standing on the dock. He shook his head, rolling his eyes, then went back to his task.  
  
"Aww, c'mon, Wu-man! Live a bit!"  
  
"ONE of us won't be LIVING very long is he keeps jumping on people," the Asian pilot spat, throwing him off. "You do that again and I'll launch you off the deck before you can say--"  
  
"Hee~chan!" Duo interrupted, pointing at Heero as he arrived on the dock. He jumped to his feet and glomped his bitter lover.  
  
Quatre snickered. "Aww...how sweet."  
  
The stoic young man lay still on his back for a moment, frowning. "Duo..."  
  
"I believe I just covered this," Wufei sighed, smacking a hand to his forehead. "You keep jumping on people and you're not going to reach the age of consent..."  
  
Duo sat up, absently straddling his koibito's spandex-masked lap as he looked back over his shoulder at Wufei. "What's that?"  
  
"Twenty-one, Duo," Quatre said, gently, as he assisted his own lover in adjusting the controls of his ship, sweetly dubbed the Jade Prince, after the aforementioned young man.  
  
"Thought it was eighteen," Trowa whispered.  
  
"For Duo?"  
  
"Good point."  
  
"Oh. Well, Heero would never hurt me." He paused, frowning, then looked down at the boy he was seated upon. "Would you?"  
  
Heero's mouth opened, a snide comment very visibly in the chamber to be fired, but Duo's violet eyes suddenly grew wide and began to shine, and the perfect soldier reacted as if he'd been shot. His mouth shut and he was silent.  
  
Duo sniffled. "Heero?"  
  
Slowly, he sighed and let his head hit the ground. A weak, defeated smile crossed his face. "Of course not."  
  
"See?" the braided boy sneered at Wufei, who rolled his eyes. "Told ya!" Then, he turned and kissed his boyfriend, who had just managed to prop himself up on his elbows.  
  
Quatre smiled. "I think this is a good idea," he said, leaning his head briefly against Trowa's broad shoulder. "I mean, it isn't like Wufei, Duo and Heero couldn't use a break."  
  
"Right as usual, Little One," Trowa agreed, wrapping his arms around him and holding him close. He smiled as the little blonde snuggled into his chest, grasping the soft material of his T-shirt. He checked his watch, then tapped a finger to his love's lips. "Open."  
  
Quatre smirked, then took his long, slender digit and ran his tongue expertly over the callused tip, wetting it effectively.  
  
Trowa allowed this to continue for a moment while Wufei stared out across the water and Heero and Duo made out, then held it up to test the wind. "Right. Come on, guys, we have to get going."  
  
Duo jumped up from his perch astride Heero's lap and leapt from the dock onto the deck of the medium-sized, white, red-and-emerald-trimmed boat. He skipped happily around the starboard-side deck and up onto the main platform with the wheel. "C'mon, Hee-chan! Let's go!"  
  
Heero got up and jumped aboard, then reached for the mooring and paused, looking around for Wufei. "We're missing someone. I'll be back." He disembarked and quickly jogged off down the dock to the shore, where a five- foot eight Asian was quickly making his escape. The perfect soldier bolted off after him and dragged him back by his ponytail, fighting and swearing in Chinese. "Watch your language," he spat.  
  
Duo laughed and Trowa smirked, but Quatre just sighed. "If he doesn't want to come, he doesn't have to..."  
  
"Put me down, Yuy! I'm warning you! I could kick your ass any day!"  
  
Click-CLICK. Wufei stopped arguing as the cold steel of Heero's gun came in contact with his nose. "Let's SEE you kick my ass, Chang. I dare you. I'm DAMN sure that my trigger finger is quicker than your fist, and my GUN is much more dangerous to your face than your karate to my body."  
  
Wufei sighed and put his hands up. "Fine, fine. Whatever, but I'm staying in my chair the whole time."  
  
Quatre sighed. "Am I invisible?"  
  
"Of course not," Trowa said, hugging him. "The scenery would be less breathtaking if that were the case."  
  
The blonde smiled. "Sweet-talker."  
  
"What can I say? I'm Latin; it's in my blood."  
  
Wufei boarded with Heero and Old Betsy escorting him and Trowa took up the helm, gently moving Duo from his spot.  
  
"Right then," the Silencer said, stretching. The act made his tight T-shirt hike up slightly, revealing a good section of his bare abdomen in the process, making Quatre grin. "Off we go. Everything ready? Supplies?"  
  
"Got food," Duo said.  
  
Quatre nodded. "Got supplies."  
  
"Sails set?"  
  
Duo jumped up and pulled the cord, causing the great white sails to tumble down. He and Quatre tied them off. "Set an' ready, cap'n!" the braided boy said with a cheap salute and a bad pirate accent. Quatre giggled.  
  
Trowa smirked. "Crew?"  
  
Duo and Quatre saluted and Heero did a quick, half-hearted one. He tapped the gun on Wufei's head. "All accounted for," the Japanese boy intoned, flatly.  
  
"Good! Well, let's get this trip on, then!"  
  
Duo pulled the mooring and Heero kicked the boat away from the shore while Quatre angled the sails correctly to catch the wind just right. As the boat shot off, the American wailed with child-like laughter, jumping into his partner's arms. "Whoo-hoo! Off we go on an adventure!"  
  
"Hyper, aren't you?" Quatre asked, smiling tolerantly.  
  
"I LOVE boats!"  
  
"Apparently," Trowa said, smirking as he steered the beautiful craft carefully out to sea. "Then say goodbye to Bermuda."  
  
Duo hugged Heero, beaming. "This is gonna be so great! What a great idea!"  
  
"Yeah," Wufei muttered, flatly. He sat back in his chair, folding his arms and scowling. "Wake me when it's over."  
  
Moving the boat away from the port, Trowa paused as his eyes passed momentarily over a craft coming back in from a similar direction nearby. It was a sailboat with holed sails, weathered yellow and orange paint, several parts of its railings missing and the title "The Depri" in scratched paint printed on the mended back of it. The crew was missing, excluding a single person, the captain, at the helm. He was ragged and wearing (from what he could see) thrashed jeans, a torn tank and no shoes, his hair slicked back and deep brown. They passed each other, and Trowa and he exchanged a glance from fifty yards. Something flashed across his face that was indiscernible before the boat disappeared behind the cove nearby. That was odd!  
  
He quickly brushed it aside, more out of slight unease than disinterest.  
  
Quatre sighed. "I'm sorry, Wufei," he said, softly, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I just wanted you to take a break...but if you don't want to come..."  
  
"You can swim back to shore," Heero finished.  
  
Trowa glanced back over his shoulder at the fading coastline. //Good luck!// he thought.  
  
Wufei scowled. "Damn it, I should be working."  
  
Duo put his hands on his shoulders. "Aww, c'mon, Wu. It isn't like your beloved DEAD people are going to DESERT you while you come on a little cruise with us."  
  
"Maxwell," he sighed, pushing him away and shaking his head. "I am a forensic scientist. Do you know what that means?"  
  
"Uh..." the amethyst eyes dilated with thought, then he smiled and shrugged. "You cut open dead people?"  
  
Trowa laughed despite himself, and Quatre shook his head, snickering at his foolish friend's comment.  
  
Wufei growled. "I inspect the bodies of murder victims in an attempt to find cause of death and their killers. That is a very significant occupation."  
  
"Oh." Duo shrugged. "Well, it's not like they're complaining."  
  
"But my superiors will be."  
  
"Tell them to kiss your ass."  
  
He scowled. "Yes, and I'd be kissing the curb. I have a good job, Maxwell, unlike YOU. At least *I* don't need another man to take care of ME."  
  
"You say that like you actually HAVE someone."  
  
"That's enough," Heero barked. "This is supposed to be a vacation, not a verbal boxing match. Both of you can be silent or you'll ride in a separate craft."  
  
Wufei and Duo exchanged glances. "What?"  
  
"Yeah, I have an old washtub aboard," Trowa said, catching Heero's drift, "And a length of rope. If you two would like to split that little dinghy for the rest of the trip, keep it up. This was going to be Quatre's and my own trip to spend some time alone, but we chose to include you, and if you interfere, you will be taken care of. Are we clear, boys?"  
  
Wufei grumbled and sat back in his seat, folding his arms, and Duo sighed, nodding. "Yeah."  
  
"Sorry, guys."  
  
****  
  
That night, four of the five pilots decided that something a little more entertaining than watching dolphins tail the boat was in order (though Duo had really gotten a kick out of those cute little things). Heero and Duo took to the back deck of the boat and laid out under the stars while Trowa and Quatre checked the maps and their course. Wufei remained in his chair, as he had been for the last seven hours or so.  
  
Quatre finally beamed and marked an area on the map, writing the date next to it. "Here we are," he said. "Right in this general area."  
  
"Very good job," Trowa said, smiling and kissing his love's forehead. "You'll be able to plot the course home at this rate within a few hours."  
  
The blonde sighed. "This isn't half as easy as you make it look."  
  
"I know, but once you get the hang of it--"  
  
"LOOK!"  
  
Trowa paused and looked back over his shoulder at the scene on the back deck. Duo was pointing out various constellations and Heero was patiently listening, agreeing that they were beautiful. //Well, that's special.//  
  
"That's Orion," the brunette was saying. "He was either an archer or a warrior...he reminds me of you, Hee-chan!"  
  
Heero smirked. "A cluster of burning gas balls remind you of me?"  
  
Duo frowned. "You know, you take the fun out of star-gazing."  
  
"I'm sorry," the perfect soldier said, kissing his stubborn koi on the forehead. "Ai shiteiru."  
  
"Aww...I love you too..."  
  
Trowa smiled and Quatre cooed. "Isn't that sweet, 'Rowa?"  
  
"Very." He leaned over the table and kissed his lover on the forehead. "Having fun yet?"  
  
Quatre smiled. "Yes...this is great so far..." Then, his smile disappeared and a look of void concentration crossed his face.  
  
Trowa blinked. "Empathy flash?"  
  
He nodded, putting a hand to his chest as the taller young man circled to his side of the table and enfolded him in his arms. "Yes...it was sort of a tight feeling on my heart..."  
  
"Like fear?"  
  
Quatre looked up at Wufei, who wore a narrow look on his face. "Yes...sort of..."  
  
"I sense tomorrow that I'll regret not having brought my cell phone." He buried his nose in his book again.  
  
Trowa frowned with distaste. Wufei's opinion was easy to omit, but Quatre's empathy flashes usually signified that something was going to happen, bad or good depending on how it felt. He checked the sails, noting that the winds had changed. Something was definitely not right here.  
  
****  
  
In the morning, Quatre made breakfast for everyone and they ate on the front deck, Trowa keeping a hand on the wheel as the cold morning wind roared around them. Duo was wrapped in a blanket in Heero's lap, because he had finished long before everyone else, and Wufei was in his chair, professing to be fasting because he was grouchy.  
  
As soon as breakfast was finished and the dishes taken care of, Heero took his whining love to the starboard side of the boat to allow him a view of the dolphins coasting alongside and orca whales spy hopping nearby.  
  
"You know, they called them killer whales originally," Heero commented, dryly.  
  
"But they don't kill people," Duo retorted. "They eat penguins and fish and tend to kick the asses of sharks, so they're cool."  
  
Trowa sighed, rolling his eyes, then smiled as Quatre joined him at the helm, hugging his arm. "Lovely morning, isn't it?" the blonde asked.  
  
"Just got lovelier."  
  
Quatre smirked at him. "You suck up too much."  
  
"Nope, I just state the truth."  
  
"This is what I get for falling in love with a clever, LATIN man."  
  
Trowa smiled. "You enjoy it, so don't complain."  
  
"Who's complaining?"  
  
Suddenly, the Chinese pilot whom had been so docile for the last fourteen hours reacted, standing and walking to the stern of the boat. He looked out across the water. "The air pressure is dropping," he said, flatly, "there's a storm on the way." He turned and looked narrowly at Trowa, who now spotted the large bank of black clouds rolling their way. "I suggest you get the sails down and put him inside. This won't be pretty." With that said, he turned and went down under the deck into the kitchen, where he turned and redirected for the cabins in the hull.  
  
Trowa blinked, then looked at Quatre, who got the picture. The blonde took off across the deck. "Heero! Duo! There's a storm on the way! We have to get everything ready!"  
  
He quickly checked the dials and gages, realizing that he would have seen the change in the barometric pressure had he been paying attention. //This won't be good.//  
  
There was a cry and he immediately looked back to see Duo holding Quatre in an awkward position.  
  
"Whew! Lucky I'm quick or you woulda went over, Q!"  
  
Lucky indeed! Trowa quickly whistled to Heero, who came hastily. "Take the wheel, I have to get the sails down."  
  
"Roger."  
  
He quickly mounted the roof of the cabin and set to work unlacing the sails, but to little avail. They were knotted somehow. "Damn. I'll have to cut the ropes."  
  
"Trowa, wind's picking up!" Heero called.  
  
It was. Trowa watched with shock as a gust of icy wind ripped out of no where, striking him with such force that it was like he had hit a wall. He grabbed onto the roof and held on, pulling himself low to avoid getting blown off.  
  
"AAAAIIIEEE!"  
  
Trowa's hand snapped out and caught Duo's braid as he and Quatre went skating past, forced by the strong air current.  
  
"OWW!"  
  
Quatre hastily grabbed onto the roof and grabbed Duo's arm, allowing Trowa to release his plait of hair. "Where did this come from?!" he cried over the whipping wind.  
  
"I don't know!"  
  
"MAN!" Duo exclaimed, grabbing Trowa's foot as another gust threatened to sweep him away. "THIS FIGURES!"  
  
And then, the storm was upon them. The rain poured down in sheets of icy water, the force of it alone threatening to sink the boat, and the wind threw the little craft around like a beach ball between the mountainous waves. Trowa quickly went to his task of getting the sails down, because, at least that way, the wind wouldn't capsize the boat and they would have more a chance of surviving.  
  
"Trowa!" Heero called over the storm. "The controls are fine, but the compass keeps changing!"  
  
"A lightning storm!" he hissed, angrily, hauling with all his might on the ropes. They were stuck. "Just what we need!"  
  
Duo skidded away from Quatre as the boat lurched forward, but Heero caught his braid and pulled him up onto the wheel platform with him, holding him tightly around the waist.  
  
"Trowa! Those damn sails will sink us!"  
  
"I KNOW!" He slammed a fist against the roof of the lower cabin. "WUFEI! GET UP HERE AND HELP US!"  
  
As the boat lurched again, Wufei gracefully skated onto the deck, his famous large-bladed katana strapped to his hip. He jumped onto the roof next to Trowa, catching him as he suddenly slipped. "Get up in the rigging and see if you can't get these damn things down without ruining the boat," he commanded.  
  
Trowa sighed, nodding, then kicked off his boots and quickly set off up the mast of the sailboat, being thankful for his slight weight. He was careful to keep his balance in synch with that of the boat's tossing, because if he leaned in the same direction that it leaned, he would overturn it. When it leaned toward him, he swung around and leaned back to balance it out, and when it leaned away, he hung back. It was difficult to keep this up while climbing a wet, smooth pole with the wind whipping all around and chaos roaring below, but he had no choice.  
  
He got to the top and quickly set his talented fingers to work at the knots in the rigging holding the sails to the top of the mast. If he undid these, they would fall, but they could be put back if they survived. Otherwise, the sails could be ruined, and Quatre wouldn't like that.  
  
Before the knot came, the boat pitched again and loomed dangerously close to the water.  
  
Trowa quickly ditched his labors and threw all his weight back, throwing his legs around the mast and hauling back with all his might. "DUO, QUATRE, WUFEI!"  
  
From below, Duo slid across the soaked deck with Wufei and both of them went to the side he indicated, throwing their weight against that side of it. It stopped tipping and stood upright again.  
  
//Where's Quatre?// He paused to look for him, but nature didn't give him time to locate his love, because seconds later a bolt of searing hot lightning struck amazingly close to him, scorching the sleeve of his over- shirt. //Shit! That was close! I had better get down...//  
  
There was another blast of lightning and a frightened cry that drew his eyes. They darted to the area just in time to see Quatre go overboard.  
  
His heart stopped. "Quatre!"  
  
Duo looked, then stripped off his jacket and bolted across the wet deck, leaping gracefully into the water after him.  
  
Heero jumped. "Duo! Damn it, Trowa, get the sails down or we'll lose them both!"  
  
"I can't! The knots are stuck!"  
  
Wufei growled and leapt back onto the roof of the lower cabin, pulling his sword. "Fuck this! Quatre likes his boat, but his life his more important right now!" He cut the ropes.  
  
They fell limply against the mast and Trowa quickly slid down, bolting across the deck and looking over the edge, his hands clasping his chest. //Please, if there is a God, save him!//  
  
~  
  
//Damn it,// Duo thought. //Where IS he?//  
  
Here beneath the waves it was much more calm and serene than it was topside, but that was no relief. Quatre was down here somewhere, because he hadn't surfaced, and he HAD to find him.  
  
A blast of lightning crashed above, lighting up the dark water, and a glitter of pale color from far below him caught his eye. Quatre was sinking!  
  
Duo quickly surfaced for a breath, then dove down after the fading figure. He couldn't let Quatre drown, he just couldn't. He was his best friend! //I have GOT to save him!//  
  
Nearby, his eyes caught on a huge, bulky form moving through the water, and Duo felt his heart pause in mid-beat at the sight. He couldn't make it out, but it was BIG. Likely to be a shark, or maybe a whale. He ignored it and continued down after the blonde.  
  
Quatre wasn't slowing, and his own swimming ability was okay, but not good enough to keep up with him. His lungs hurt already. He was going to lose him!  
  
Then, something amazing happened. The dark form dove down and disappeared into the darkness, only to surface once again with Quatre hooked limply over its dorsal fin. It was an orca! It came up under Duo and scooped him up too, then surfaced.  
  
Duo quickly caught his breath, then grabbed Quatre as the whale sunk again. //Geez, thanks, man! That was amazing!//  
  
The boat was pretty close by, but something felt dangerously bad. Quatre was still limp in his arms, and he wasn't breathing. "Trowa!" he called to the boy on deck. "He's not breathing!"  
  
Trowa grabbed a large lifesaver on a long rope and pitched it to him, ringing him instantly. The thin young man hauled them in, carting them along with the rocking boat. He pulled them aboard.  
  
Duo ignored his soaked and uncomfortable state and immediately started pumping Quatre's chest with all his might, hoping to force his lungs into life. Trowa sat at his right, looking desperate to help. "Trowa, you breathe for him!" Duo loved Quatre, but he was sure the blonde would rather his lover did it.  
  
"Right," he said, softly. He parted Quatre's pale lips and put his own over them for a moment before letting go. He repeated the action again without any result.  
  
Though it was pouring buckets, Duo was sure that he could see tears staining Trowa's pale cheeks as he set to pumping the smaller boy's chest some more.  
  
Heero was still at the wheel, and the current was so strong that Wufei had to help him handle it. Both of them got pitched to the ground.  
  
//This ain't good.//  
  
Suddenly, as Trowa breathed for him again, Quatre began to sputter and cough up water. "Quatre!"  
  
"Wha--hap--pened--?" he choked between coughs.  
  
Trowa went to answer, then gasped and grabbed the blonde as the boat pitched again, violently knocking them all back against the cabin. Wufei and Heero nearly went overboard, but caught the portside railing and held onto it tightly. "Damn this storm!" he hissed.  
  
Duo skidded to the portside and grasped Heero's hands, pulling him aboard, then grabbed Wufei as well and pulled him up as his love took up the wheel again. "This blows, man! I wish it would just STOP!"  
  
Suddenly, the rain thinned and stopped, and the wind cut off. It was still very dark, thanks to the clouds, but other than that, the storm was over.  
  
Duo blinked as every eye hit him in the silently swaying boat. All he could think to say at the time was, "WHAT?"  
  
~  
  
Trowa quickly turned his attention back to his baby, who was shivering in his saturated clothing. He quickly scooped him up and took him below deck into the main bunk room, where he hastily stripped him of the wet garments and wrapped him in a huge, plush towel.  
  
"Tro-chan..."  
  
He kissed the damp forehead of his angel, cradling him in his arms silently and thanking God that he was alive.  
  
"Trowa..." Quatre reached up and pulled gently at the wet sleeve of his shirt. "You're all wet..."  
  
As if that was important. He was so caring, even though he had looked oblivion in the face. He held him closer, sighing. "I was afraid I'd lost you..." he breathed in his ear. "Oh, Quatre, I was scared--for the first time in so long I was terrified, and I never want to feel that again."  
  
Quatre ran his cold, damp fingers through Trowa's wet hair, whipping it back out of his face and revealing both of his beautiful green eyes. "Trowa...I..."  
  
"Hush now, Little One," he sighed, holding him close. "Rest..."  
  
"How did I get back on the boat?"  
  
"Duo went in after you..."  
  
Quatre smiled, nuzzling his chest. "My best friend is your hero then, and mine."  
  
Trowa sighed, nodding. He was more than grateful to Duo for giving him back his angel and saving his life, but in the same sense, he couldn't help but hate him. //But *I* wanted to be your hero...//  
  
"Trowa."  
  
He looked up to see Wufei standing in the doorway, wet, like all the rest of them. "You might want to come up here and see this."  
  
****  
  
"The dials...they're all...spinning..." Quatre gasped as Trowa brought him out into the dim daylight.  
  
Indeed they were. The compass was going around and around, and the gas gage for the emergency electric motor kept bouncing up, then down, then up again. The radar was flashing all over the place, then blacking out, then flashing again, and if it weren't for the fact that the system was glitching, one might think they were being attacked by ghosts, the way they kept changing.  
  
"The motor won't start," Wufei said, flatly.  
  
"Something must be wrong with the system," Trowa muttered.  
  
"It's not just that," Heero said. He held up Duo's left hand, indicating the black traditional watch strapped there. The minute hand kept rotating and the hour hand kept jumping, while the second hand was frozen in place.  
  
Trowa blinked. "Um...maybe it was the water that made it do that."  
  
Duo flipped his wrist over and unstrapped the watch, then showed Trowa the inner side of the band, which clearly said in silver caps WATERPROOF DIVER'S WRISTWATCH.  
  
Heero held out his own wrist, where his own chronograph was positioned. The numbers were flashing violently, first four of the number eight, then a twelve and seventy one. Then, it flickered off. It did this several times, flashing strange parts of numbers and odd codes. "This watch is hooked to a government satellite, and the only way this thing can malfunction is if the satellite comes down--which has not happened because there is still an EARTH--or if there is a violent electrical interference, and no storm could cause one violent enough to make it glitch this way."  
  
He was silent. He couldn't think up a logical excuse for this strange activity, and that bugged him. First, the storm had come out of no where, only to stop twenty minutes later on a whim. Then, the boat had lost all control over its mechanics and anything else electric or battery powered had conked out. With a sigh, he grabbed the radio, but as he flipped though the channels, there wasn't even static.  
  
"Dead," Wufei sighed. "Trowa, we've tried everything, and nothing works. The motor, the stove, the microwave, the outlets, the radio, the controls and the emergency radio are all out, along with Heero's cell phone and my pager. Everything is gone."  
  
He sighed, smacking the handset down. "Damn it, this doesn't make sense! The storm couldn't have knocked everything out this way."  
  
"Trowa..."  
  
He turned to see Quatre leaning against his dripping best friend, a hand over his chest. "Empathy flash?"  
  
He nodded. "Yes..."  
  
Trowa sighed, then started checking the channels again. He kicked the control panel.  
  
Suddenly, the static started.  
  
Duo blinked. "Well, there's something to be said for mechanical abuse!"  
  
He sighed, then quickly grabbed the handset. "S.O.S., this is the sailboat Jade Prince. I repeat, this is the Jade Prince. If anyone can here this, we are stranded. Our instruments are out and we need help."  
  
There was a response, but it was garbled to the point that not one of them could understand a word of it, except possibly "be stared," but that made no real sense. Then, the radio died completely.  
  
Trowa sighed, dropping the handset again. "Well, that was pointless. Heero, could you go check the engine room, please?"  
  
He nodded. "Come on, Duo."  
  
The American nodded and grabbed a toolbox, then the two disappeared down into the bottom of the boat.  
  
Wufei sighed and strode silently to the stern, leaning on the railing and looking out over the open ocean. The sky was now a uniform gray, bland and ugly, and the water was so calm it was hard to tell it wasn't just a picture or a prop-up set they were staring at. It was just water for miles and miles around. There weren't even dolphins or whales anywhere in the distance. No seagulls, no sound, no SKY for crying out loud. It was all so...eerie. "I'll keep a look out for any ships," he said, finally. He looked back at Quatre and Trowa. "God knows we just woke up probably not even two hours ago, but Quatre should rest, and Trowa, when night falls, those of us who don't scare easily will have to be up taking shifts. Go downstairs, take a nap. Relax a while."  
  
Trowa smiled, weakly, as Quatre fell limp against his chest. "Thanks, Wufei. This is strangely nice of you."  
  
"Eh, get down there and get some rest. I can handle it."  
  
He sighed, wrapping an arm around his weak koi, then scooped him up and took him down the stairs to the bunks. He laid him out on one of the bottom bunks, then climbed up himself and put his head against his soft tummy, smiling as Quatre's hands dove into his partially-damp hair. "Adoramus te, mi amor."  
  
Quatre smiled. "Latin? What does it mean?"  
  
"I adore you, my love."  
  
The blonde snickered. "You're too good to me."  
  
Trowa sighed as those soft, talented hands began to gently massage his scalp, relaxing him immensely. "Okay," he groaned into his lover's stomach, receiving a giggle in return, "WHO is too good to WHOM?"  
  
"I want you to relax now that we're safe, and I'm trying to help."  
  
"I understand that," he sighed. "But I don't feel safe trying to s--ohhh, that feels good..." Quatre's hands had moved to the back of his neck and begun massaging the tense muscles of his nape.  
  
Quatre sighed. "Sleep, Trowa."  
  
He gladly obliged. After that mind-racking, traumatic dance with death, he was exhausted. He had almost lost his love, his friends and the boat, as well as his own life. That was just TOO much excitement. Sure, Gundam piloting was much more dangerous, but piloting a mobile suit was easier, because when one was doing so, they knew they had control of what happened, life or death. When things were in the hands of fate, nothing was certain.  
  
Like now, for instance. They had no way of getting anywhere and just had to pray that either the wind picked up or someone found them. They could all die of starvation or exposure, or they could come across an island and catch a ride back to Bermuda...either way, there was no way to tell.  
  
As the sweet darkness of sleep swept over him, Trowa unconsciously nuzzled the blonde pilot's stomach and hugged him. "I love you."  
  
"I love you more."  
  
He couldn't argue, because before his mouth was open again, he was asleep...  
  
Then, seemingly seconds later, his eyes were open again and he was alone on the bed. He was awake? How long had he been asleep, and what had woken him?  
  
For that matter...where was Quatre?  
  
"Trowa."  
  
He looked up. Oh. There he was, and Duo too. They were standing and looking at him. "What is it?" he asked, dumbly.  
  
Duo gestured to him. "Come on, Wufei said he spotted something weird on the horizon. Might be another boat. If it is, we can get back."  
  
Quatre gave him a hand up and allowed him to lean against him as they ascended the stairs. The blue-eyed boy smiled at him. "Your hair is standing out like a Chinese paper fan."  
  
Trowa sighed, then ran a hand through his hair, pushing the bang back out of his face momentarily before allowing it to fall back down again in its natural style. It was so used to being this way that it was sort of a reset action to make it return to this--brushing it back. Strange, but it worked.  
  
They reached the deck and were met by Wufei and Heero. The sails were up again somehow and they were moving. The Japanese pilot was at the wheel and the Chinese pilot standing at the his place on the stern deck, and just beyond him, floating motionless on the surface of the ocean, was a huge ship. It seemed to be old, but not too old. Perhaps it was an old tanker, or maybe cruise ship. The question was, what was it doing way out here?  
  
"What's that?" Quatre asked, softly. Trowa felt his hand being squeezed.  
  
Wufei had located a telescope somehow and he was standing still, looking at the large craft in the distance. They were maybe half a mile away from it now. "It's a ship, all right," he said. "It's ancient, but it looks seaworthy. If it's still in good condition, we might have a chance to get out of here. It may have good instruments, or possibly some supplies. Maybe even a radio."  
  
"What's that printed on the side?" Trowa asked, squinting in an attempt to make out the words on it.  
  
Wufei turned a bit to the text on the upper side of the ship. "It says Obsidian Rosemary. This is a cruise ship."  
  
"How can you tell?" Duo asked.  
  
"No tanker or navy captain with any self-respect would christen a ship with such a gaudy name."  
  
Well, THAT made sense. Now that they were closer still, Trowa could make out large pipes protruding from the deck of the large vessel, signifying that it was probably a 1920 steam ship, used for commercial publicity. The Titanic had been much like this, but the coloring was different. The outer shell of the hull was a pitch black, and the rest of it was an odd gray that might have been white at one time, decorated with thin paintings of colorful flowers that were faded. All things considered, it was in great condition, but once again, the question of why it was here and not in a museum arose. It didn't make sense!  
  
Of course, things had stopped making sense this morning.  
  
Duo got a length of rope from the supply kit as they came up close to the monstrous liner. It really WAS huge. It made the Jade Prince look like a spec, and that sailboat was a good thirty-two feet long at least. It was like a hotwheels car versus a MONSTER TRUCK. The braided boy made a lasso with the rope, fastening one side of it to their boat, and managed to hook it on the giant rusty anchor hanging half-cast, maybe twenty feet above them. Near it was an old steel ladder that led the rest of the way up onto the boat. "Well, going up?"  
  
"Oh no," Quatre said, shaking his head. "I am NOT going up there!"  
  
"C'mon, Q. You aren't afraid of heights, are you?"  
  
"Well, no," he started, tensely. "B-but--"  
  
Duo beamed, then cut him off. "Good! Let's go!" He quickly loosened his shoulders, then grabbed onto the rope.  
  
Before Quatre could say anything, Heero caught his boy by his braid. "Wait."  
  
"Hmm? What? You agreed with Wufei that we should check it out!"  
  
"I'm going first, because I'm armed."  
  
"Good point."  
  
Trowa narrowed his eyes. "Hold it! WHO agreed to WHAT? No one asked Quatre or I our opinions!"  
  
"You were sleeping," Wufei said with an indifferent shrug. "We were going to leave you a note and come back."  
  
"What if its unstable in there?" Quatre asked. "It looks ancient. If you went in there and got hurt, what would we do?"  
  
"You'd survive."  
  
"WUFEI!" Quatre cried, looking hysterical. "We CANNOT go up there! It's unsafe!"  
  
The Altron pilot rolled his eyes. "BREATHING in this world is unsafe, Quatre. If we just keep floating, we'll die. At least if we go up there we'll have somewhat of a chance. Stay here if you want, we're going up." He turned to Heero, who was already stretching. "After you."  
  
"Thank you." He jumped and caught the rope in his hands, then began slowly and carefully began climbing the rope. Duo waited a moment, then hurried and followed him.  
  
"Nice view, Hee-chan."  
  
"Fuck you."  
  
"Yes, please."  
  
Wufei scowled, looking away as the American and Japanese boys quickly headed up the rope. "You two coming?"  
  
Trowa looked at his love, who looked worried. He himself knew that there was no other choice for them, so he sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll be there to protect you."  
  
Quatre looked at him, his wide, innocent eyes shining with fear, but he nodded. He was much stronger than many knew. "All right."  
  
"As soon as they get off the rope," Wufei said, "you and Quatre can get up there, Trowa. Too many at a time and it might break, and THAT would be dangerous."  
  
"You'll go last?"  
  
"Just to be sure you all get up all right."  
  
Quatre smiled. "I'd hug you but you'd probably hit me."  
  
Wufei shook his head, then looked up as Duo's voice echoed down.  
  
"WHOA! LOOK AT THIS VIEW!" The brunette boy was standing on the anchor, holding its neck and looking out across the ocean. He waved down to them.  
  
"Duo, get over here," Heero barked from the ladder. He was hanging back with one hand grasping a metal rung as he looked at his koibito. "NOW."  
  
"Okay, I'm coming, I'm coming!" Duo hopped carefully from the anchor and onto the ladder beneath Heero, his nose bumping his lower back. He blinked. "Could ya speed it up, Hee-chan? I like your ass, but not that much."  
  
"I'd tell you to bite me, but considering where you're head is positioned, I think it would be in my best interests to refrain."  
  
Duo shrugged. "Whatever THAT meant."  
  
Heero rolled his eyes, then started off up the ladder.  
  
Wufei gestured to the rope. "Quatre first."  
  
"ME?" he squeaked. "Why ME?"  
  
"If you slip, Trowa can catch you."  
  
"Oh..." The blonde swallowed hard, then cracked his knuckles and carefully mounted the rope. He looked back at Trowa. "You WILL catch me, right?"  
  
He nodded. "Of course, Little One."  
  
Quatre sighed, looking worried, then started to climb.  
  
Trowa looked at Wufei, who was adjusting the handle of his katana so it lay flat against his hip. "What if YOU fall?"  
  
"I can swim."  
  
He shrugged. Wufei was very set in his ways, and attempting to change his mind on anything was insane. "All right, then."  
  
"Trowa..."  
  
He looked up at Quatre, who was stuck about halfway up the rope (about a bit more than the height of an average room above his head). "What's the matter, love?"  
  
"I'm afraid...please, hurry up..."  
  
He sighed. "Quatre, I want you to slide back down here. I'll carry you up if you like."  
  
The blonde looked back at him and jumped, then shut his eyes. "O-okay..." Slowly, he inched back down and let go of it, instantly adhering himself to Trowa's chest like a sock with static cling. "I d-don't know why I'm so s-s- scared..."  
  
Trowa smiled, tolerantly, then pried the boy off him and turned his back to him, allowing Quatre to hoist himself onto it. He grasped his legs at the knees and set them crossed around his trim waist, then adjusted his arms so they weren't choking him. "Now, the rope is going to swing a bit, but I want you to hold on to me no matter what. Don't let go until I tell you."  
  
"Got it!"  
  
"Good." He looked up at the anchor, twenty or so feet--or two stories-- above him, then sighed and grasped the rope with both hands. Utilizing all of his upper body strength, Trowa began the slow ascent up the rope, carrying his koi on his back and a load of pressure in his chest. Quatre's weight wasn't too much, but he had never been too strong in this department. He could climb, certainly, but his arms were tired for some reason, probably from going through something very like this with the mast of the boat. Still, he managed to make it to the anchor without too much trouble.  
  
Now, the problem would be getting Quatre off his back and onto the ladder. He hauled himself over the anchor, straddling it and allowing the Sandrock pilot off his back, then got up and turned to him, balancing carefully on the bent leg of the giant steel hook. "Quatre, I want you to slide around me and get up on that ladder."  
  
"WHAT?!" he peeped, wide-eyed. He clung to the anchor's neck. "I can't! I'll fall!"  
  
Trowa sighed. "Quatre--"  
  
"I won't move! I am NOT falling from this height! I hit that boat and I'll break my back!"  
  
Why was he so scared? Quatre was usually very brave in his own reserved way, and he wasn't really afraid of heights, because he had been born in a colony. Something was really wrong with this picture. Trowa gently took his love's shoulders and looked into those shining cerulean eyes. "I will NEVER let you fall, Quatre."  
  
The smaller boy looked into his eyes, and slowly, his tensed muscles relaxed. He nodded, sighing. "I trust you, Trowa. I know you won't, but I can't help but fear that you might make a mistake and I'll fall..."  
  
"I promise you, if anything happens to you that I could have prevented, you won't be leaving this world alone. I could never live without you."  
  
Quatre smiled, then sighed and nodded. Trowa leaned carefully back against the ship, allowing the blonde some room to get past him, then watched as he slowly, cautiously mounted the steel ladder. He took a few steps up, then looked at Trowa. "Hurry."  
  
He nodded, then jumped over and caught the bottom rung of it, hanging there by one hand calmly as Quatre paused.  
  
"Don't DO that!" he exclaimed. "You'll scare the life out of me!"  
  
"Hurry it up!" Wufei exclaimed. "We haven't got all day!"  
  
Trowa nodded and pulled himself up onto the ladder properly, then followed Quatre to the top and climbed up over the side.  
  
Duo and Heero were no where in sight. The old deck of the boat was in tact, though the wood was an ugly grayish-brown, and the old black smokestacks were rusting. It would have been a magnificent liner a hundred years ago, but now...it was amazing it hadn't sunk already!  
  
"Boo!"  
  
Quatre gasped and Trowa jumped, but it was just Duo.  
  
"Ha-HA! What took you two so long?"  
  
"Don't do that," Trowa spat.  
  
Wufei appeared on the rail of the boat, smirking. "Maxwell creeped you out, I assume?"  
  
Trowa scowled. "We had better get checking around. Where is Heero?"  
  
"Looking for a radio," Duo said. "He told me to scout for you three."  
  
"Well, that's fine." Trowa looked on past Duo as his eyes hit a very annoyed-looking perfect soldier, whom had just arrived on the scene. "Nothing?"  
  
"Not in the wheelhouse. It's probably somewhere else on the ship."  
  
"I vote we go exploring!" Duo exclaimed.  
  
Quatre shook his head. "I don't think--"  
  
"Of course not! You're blonde!" Duo bawled, jumping on his back and messing his hair. "C'mon, have some fun! It's not like we have anywhere to go, and besides, if we find a radio or some supplies that are usable, it won't be a total loss, so just chill!"  
  
Though he didn't like the crack on Quatre's intelligence, Trowa had to admit that he was right. It WOULD be better to search the boat for a radio or supplies to fix the boat with. The chance to be rescued or receive some help was worth a little inconvenience. He nodded. "All right, but we'll need a map of the ship and all of the rooms in it."  
  
"Already handled," Heero said, presenting an old blueprint. "There are various rooms in which passengers stayed in, a main ballroom that took up a good fourth of the second floor of this place, and the brig and engine room that take up the entire area of the hull. There are several other places, like the kitchen and the storage rooms on the map, but other than those, nothing very decisive. I suggest a full top-to-bottom search." He shrugged. "It isn't like we have anything better to do. Besides, if we fine something- -anything--we might be better off than we are now."  
  
That was a good point. Trowa nodded. "Do we split up or stay together."  
  
"Together," Quatre said, grabbing Trowa's sleeve. "We stay together until we get at least a hint of how to navigate this thing. Then, MAYBE, we can split into groups."  
  
It was decided that they would stick together. They all did a quick inventory of their resources, which consisted of a handgun, a katana, a pack of gum (?), a few quarters and a pocketknife. Well, it wasn't like they were staying onboard--just VISITING, so to speak.  
  
~  
  
Quatre didn't like it. Something was wrong with this place--he could feel it. The air was thick with sadness and terror, and his heart told him that they shouldn't be here. //We should go back to the boat,// he thought. Nervously, he looked up at Trowa, who looked fearless as usual. That was relieving. Hell, at least ONE of them was brave!  
  
Heero led the way to a stairwell that brought them into a shadow-draped hall, adorned in thick curtains of cobwebs. It was cold and dank, and it was amazingly dark. The only light emanated from the small porthole windows lining the wall, and that much was dim.  
  
"This is so cool," Duo muttered as they approached the end of the hall. "Like a time-tunnel..."  
  
It really must have been grand in its time. Just the look of it made it apparent that only people with either a LOT of money or serious persuasive talents could've taken a trip on this boat.  
  
That brought up that same question. What was it doing here, abandoned, and what had happened to the people here? It was very unlikely that an entire crew would ditch such a grand vessel in the middle of the ocean and leave it, and even if they had, how had the passengers and crew gotten away from it? Why leave it in the first place? Was it dangerous?  
  
No, it was just old. It seemed by the condition of the dusty red carpet over the wooden floor that it had been left in its prime. WHY?  
  
Quatre's thoughts completely stopped as they came to the end of the hall. Straight ahead was an adjacent hall like the one they had just exited, but to the right...  
  
They turned and all of them froze. It was a pair of giant stained-glass, gold-trimmed doors, picturing colorful rose bouquets and angles. Though it was foggy and old, it was still beautiful.  
  
"The ballroom," Heero said, holding up the blueprint and indicating a pair of large doors. "From here we should make some headway to the guest rooms and the engine room." He handed it to Duo, then stepped forward and grasped the golden handles, gently turning them and pushing the colossal glass gates apart.  
  
It was indeed the ballroom, and it was huge, big enough to store a large two-story house in. They slowly descended the wide grand staircase, looking around at the beautifully-crafted sculptures caked with cobwebs and dust that stood around the upper balconies that surrounded the upper half of the chamber, branching from the stairs. The hardwood dance-floor was carpeted by a thick blanket of dust that was completely undisturbed by footsteps or any kind of movement, excluding some strange swirling patterns here and there. There was furniture that may have been lining the walls forming a circle in the center of it all, right below a giant crystal chandelier. To both sides of the ballroom were lesser staircases, red-carpeted and small, that seemed to lead into yet more halls, which meant that the guest rooms were probably nearby.  
  
"This is amazing..." Quatre whispered, clutching Trowa's arm.  
  
"Yeah, sorta like the Titanic without Leonardo DiCaprio," Duo said, smirking. "Wonder what happened..."  
  
Wufei looked more than a bit skeptical. "This should be in a museum, not here in the middle of no where. I don't like it."  
  
"I vote we go back to the boat," Quatre said. "I'm not afraid, but as far as I can see, if an entire crew and all the passengers on this place would just ditch it, there MUST be something wrong."  
  
Trowa nodded. "Of course, but we SHOULD at least look around, Quatre. When it gets dark, we can go. Now, we have to decide how to split into groups..."  
  
Quatre sighed, then let his mind drift, looking around the ballroom with a good deal of admiration. As a child, he had been on an ocean liner like this, but it had been a cruise ship, not a steamship. It was really beautiful, though the suspicion that this was all a bad idea stayed with him.  
  
Then, something caught his eye from the side and he instinctively looked back, peering at one of the lesser staircases that led into a hallway parallel to the one they had come down, the one leading back the way they had come. There, looking at him from the shadows of the residential corridor, was a little boy. He looked to be maybe six, with large gray eyes and dirty blonde hair, wearing two-piece blue pajamas and hugging a doll. From where he was standing, Quatre couldn't make out much more than that, except the form of a larger person behind him, reaching for him.  
  
Quatre spun all the way around and looked at the boy, his heart stopping. He looked do scared and insecure, and that person, whoever it was, didn't look too nice. "Oh my God..."  
  
"Quatre?" Trowa grasped his shoulders. "What is it?"  
  
"Do you see them?"  
  
Trowa turned him around, forcing him to turn his back on the figures, then looked into his eyes. "See what, Quatre?"  
  
He turned his head and looked back, then gasped as a pair of arms wrapped around the boy and pulled him back into the darkness. The last thing he saw was the boy's face contorted in fear. He ripped away from Trowa and bolted across the grimy floor, slipping on the dust as he made his way to the steps. He took them two at a time and stared down the dark hallway, holding his breath.  
  
There wasn't even a footprint on the floor.  
  
He stared around, dumbfounded. "What...?"  
  
"Winner!"  
  
"What are you doing, Quatre?!"  
  
"Dude, where ya goin?!"  
  
"Quatre!"  
  
The others rushed up and caught him by the shoulders, sputtering out exclamations of confusion and worry. Finally, Trowa's voice got up over the rest. "What are you doing?!"  
  
He looked at him, then shook his head. "I...I thought I saw people...watching us...a-a child..."  
  
Duo grabbed his shoulders. "Q, this place is ancient. Why would there be anyone but us here?"  
  
He sighed, shaking his head. "I think I'm seeing things."  
  
"That's it," Trowa said. "I'm keeping Quatre with me. Duo and Heero can stick together, and Wufei, you can pick a side."  
  
"No, thanks. I can handle myself."  
  
"It isn't safe--"  
  
"I can manage, Trowa," Wufei said, firmly. "We meet back here in a while, since our watches aren't working. Let's say roughly ten minutes."  
  
Heero nodded. "Duo and I will take that hall over there. Trowa and Quatre, you two take this one."  
  
"I'll look around on deck for anything," Wufei said.  
  
So it was agreed. They all went their separate ways.  
  
As they headed off down the hall, which turned out to be a simple, dark hall without doors that led to a stairwell, Quatre couldn't help but worry about what he had seen. Ghosts? That meant that people had died on this ship, and that was not a good sign. //Places like these should NEVER be disturbed...// he thought. However before he could think more on this, he tripped and hit the floor.  
  
Trowa paused, then knelt down and took his shoulders. "Quatre," he said, gently. "Are you sure you're all right? I mean, you just hallucinated and now you're falling all over yourself..."  
  
"I've only fallen once," he retorted, pulling himself up onto his knees. "And I tripped on something." He reached back under his feet and produced what had tripped him, and the object itself made him pause.  
  
"A doll?"  
  
It was a doll, all right. It was a stuffed clown doll in a suit of many colors that seemed to be stitched together from many kinds of cloth into a soft, colorful body. What was even stranger was the fact that it only had half a face, and not the face of a human; its eye was a purple four-pointed star and the mouth was a big red oblong shape, curved upward into a macabre grin. The right side of the face was missing, and in its place was a piece of black cloth, and it had been stitched in place immaturely right down the center of the face. The little boy had been holding this freakish doll...  
  
"Strange-looking little thing," Trowa mused, touching a finger to the left side of the face. "Looks sort of like my mask..."  
  
He was right, it did, but Trowa's mask was right side, while this was left. It was odd. He held it for a minute, sensing a strong emotion of something attached to the doll--left behind by the boy that owned (or had owned) it. He gave it a gentle squeeze and it squeaked. "A child's toy shouldn't look like this..." he whispered. "It looks like a reject Frankenstein experiment...see here, it's made out of other stuffed dolls."  
  
"It was common practice back then for mothers to make dolls from scarps for their children," Trowa said. "It's a rag doll--ugly or not, that's all that it is."  
  
Quatre held it for a moment, then nodded. "This must have a place somewhere on this ship. I think I'll keep it for a while."  
  
"But Quatre--"  
  
"Trowa, I have told you that I have a strange feeling about this place, and it has something to do with this little thing. I...Trowa, I don't like this, but my heart is warning me about this doll and this place."  
  
His green-eyed prince took him into his arms and hugged him, kissing his scalp. "Okay...okay, you can keep it for now, but put it back here before we leave. I don't like the idea of taking things from where they were left."  
  
He nodded. "All right."  
  
~  
  
Wufei picked through the various papers and maps, marked by black ink and points plotting which places the boat had probably stopped at. The place was a mess, and the wheel was half broken, but there was indeed no sign of a radio. He found a book labeled, "Captain's Log," but other than that and a compass that was broken, there was nothing of interest.  
  
He sighed as he continued digging around. "So much for that." As he searched through the mass of trash on the floor, he came across an unmarked book. //Well, it isn't like I have anything better to do...// He flipped it open and let his eyes scan down the page.  
  
It was the ship's voyage log, the book that contained the names of every passenger, their class and their room number, and the list of passengers went on forever. There was even a list of the captain's top men. This might be somewhat helpful. If they went to the rooms of the people in first class, they might find some valuables that could be of use.  
  
Of course, if they didn't find out where they were or fix the boat, what good would it be?  
  
Suddenly, the door slammed shut and the tumbling of the gears in the lock resounded.  
  
He turned and looked at it, then tried the handle. It was definitely locked. //Oh, no. How the hell...?// He slammed a fist against it, angrily, then looked back over his shoulder at the glass windshield just in front of the wheel. With an agitated growl, he quickly went to it and tried to shatter it, but his fists only bounced off harmlessly, not leaving so much as a scratch on the surface. //Bad karma. I don't like this at ALL.//  
  
The one thing the others didn't know about Wufei was the most important thing--he was claustrophobic. Certainly, piloting Nataku wasn't frightening, because he knew Meiran's spirit protected him within it and he could always get out, but any other small, enclosed place that he couldn't escape made him edgy to the point of almost insane nervousness.  
  
He sighed, then started going through the drawers of tools in the desk nearby, looking for a key or SOMETHING to get him out of it. Unfortunately, there wasn't a single thing that seemed to be of any help. What had closed to door, and why was it locked?  
  
Wufei looked at his sword, then at the door again. //I don't want to destroy something so old, but...oh, fuck it! I am NOT staying in here!// He pulled the katana from its sheath and lifted it above his head, aiming at the dead-bolt lock and handle. He brought it down several times in an awkward cubic shape and both fell out. With a swift kick, the door flew open and broke off. "Whew..."  
  
A soft giggle caught his ear and he quickly stepped out onto the deck, glancing around vigilantly for the source of it. It was accompanied by very light, feathery music, like that of a child's toy piano.  
  
//Bad karma,// he thought again. He turned and peeked around the corner beyond the wheelhouse, where the strange sound was coming from. His eyes widened.  
  
There, standing on the stern deck in a gray, lacy dress, was a little girl. In her hands was a small, golden box with the lid drawn back, revealing a faceted, black gem spinning on a glass plane. The music was coming from this. She looked about seven with raven black hair hanging limply over her shoulders and eyes so pale they were like silver. She had a little wreath of white flowers seated atop her head that made her look all the more innocent, and her cute little face with upturned nose and pouty lips added to the effect. She was like a little china doll.  
  
He blinked. What was a little girl doin on this old ship? "What are you doing?" he asked.  
  
She smiled, cutely, then giggled.  
  
Then, something clicked in his mind. He looked around, noting that no one else was up here, then turned back to her. "YOU locked me in there, didn't you?"  
  
Her smile widened into an impish grin. She held out the music box and he once again noted the creepy music. "Will you play with me?" she asked, innocently.  
  
Something was VERY wrong here... //Maybe the people Quatre saw...maybe someone else got caught out here and decided to board the way we did...did he see her? He said he saw a child...// "Little girl, are you alone?"  
  
"Play with me," she commanded.  
  
He shook his head. "Answer my question."  
  
She shook her head. "You won't play with me?"  
  
This was becoming quickly aggravating. "NO, now answer me."  
  
She frowned, then scowled and held her box to her chest. "You'll be sorry you didn't play with me..." Then, she faded out.  
  
Wufei stared for a moment, then rubbed his eyes and blinked. //What in the name of HELL just happened?!// He didn't like the feeling of this deck anymore, and he suddenly wanted to be anywhere in the ship but up here. With a quick shudder, he turned to head for the stairs, but he froze again.  
  
It was the little girl again, only now she was in front of the stairs, skipping rope in her lacy dress. She was looking right at him, and her box was gone.  
  
"Look, kid," he started, tensely, feeling his heart's palpitations increasing. "You owe me a SERIOUS explanation. What are you doing on this ship, and--how did you disappear like that?"  
  
She cracked another impish grin. "I told you to play with me. Now I guess I'll have to play with YOU." She stopped in her activity and tossed him the rope, then giggled. "And I wanna play...hide and seek!"  
  
Wufei snatched the rope from the air, then looked at it. It wasn't a jump rope--it was binding rope, like the one Duo had used to--  
  
His eyes widened. "The BOAT!" He ran to the side of the ship and looked down over the edge at the water. There was no sign of the Jade Prince, but there was a small length of cut rope dangling from the anchor. He looked out across the horizon at the undisturbed surface of the ocean, then went to the other side of the ship and did the same. Quatre's sailboat was gone. He turned back to look at the little girl, but she was gone again. "This is not good..." He looked at the rope again, then inspected both sides. One of them was neatly hemmed, as all ropes were when they were first made, and the other seemed to have been severed by a hot blade, because it was slightly blackened and warm. "This is definitely NOT good...GUYS!" he took off down the stairs and into the hall that led to the ballroom.  
  
They were trapped on a boat with a ghost. Trapped on the Obsidian Rosemary.  
  
~  
  
Little did the Chinese pilot know that he and his comrades were being watched, and by more than one entity.  
  
{"You won't hurt them, will you?"}  
  
{"Of COURSE I will, Toby. They have Jake, after all. Do you want them to keep him?"}  
  
{"No! Of course not! Oh, I miss him..."}  
  
{"Don't worry--I'll get him back for you. I promise."}  
  
{"But...I don't want you to hurt them..."}  
  
{"Oh, come now. In every life, a little rain must fall, and I sense a storm coming their way."}  
  
****  
  
TBC 


	2. Jake and Toby

The Devil's Triangle: Trapped on the Obsidian Rosemary  
  
By Xandra  
  
Chapter Two: Jake and Toby  
  
****  
  
The dim light outside the porthole windows was quickly waning, signifying that the day had worn on much further than they had thought. As the night slowly approached, darkness set in on the hearts of the other four pilots at the news. The ship wasn't the only gloomy thing in the area, now.  
  
"What do you MEAN the boat is GONE?!"  
  
"Just what I said, Maxwell!"  
  
"How can it be GONE, WUFEI?!"  
  
Trowa sighed and smacked a hand to his forehead. "Hold on, hold on!" he cried over the others. Everyone quickly went silent and as he seated himself in an overstuffed chair in the middle of the ballroom. They had agreed that this would be their meeting place, because it was by far the biggest and most easily accessed area of the ship. He sighed and put a hand on his forehead. "Okay...let me get this straight, Wufei, and correct me if I'm wrong. You were in the wheelhouse and the door shut and locked without warning. When you BUSTED the DOOR DOWN"--he raised his voice a fraction on those words, because it ticked him off a tad bit--"you were met by a little girl with a strange box. You asked her questions and her only responses were 'play with me.' When you told her no, she said you'd regret it and disappeared. When you turned around, she was jumping rope with the mooring line and she threw it to you, then disappeared again. When you looked, the boat was gone, and now we're stranded on this ship. Am I missing anything?"  
  
The Chinese pilot sighed, nodding. "I know it sounds crazy, but that's what happened. This weird little girl with black hair somehow managed all this, and she couldn't have been any more than seven. The disappearing is what really gets me."  
  
"Wufei," Duo said, flatly, "Are you sure you weren't just having an insane moment and you decided to blame it on a little girl?"  
  
He was up and out of his chair in a blink, but Quatre caught his arms and held him still. "Why you little son-of-a--"  
  
"Please, we can't fight!" Quatre exclaimed. "In any case, the sailboat is gone and we're stuck on this ship, so we'll just have to figure a way to either get off it or get it working so we can get somewhere."  
  
"But I doubt a tanker from several hundred years ago is going to have FOOD on it, Q," Duo retorted.  
  
Heero's hand came up and clipped the back of the braided boy's head. "Damare, baka." He turned back to the others. "This thing might still be in good working condition, if we're lucky."  
  
"Fat chance, this whole day has sucked," Duo muttered under his breath.  
  
The perfect soldier's icy eyes hit him. "I believe I told you to SHUT UP, Duo, and if you do NOT, I will shut you up MYSELF."  
  
The brunette scowled and slouched down in his chair, folding his arms.  
  
"I suggest we finish searching the boat, and either find a radio and call for the coast guard or get this old thing working and find a way back to Bermuda," Heero continued. "Either way, we have to do something before we starve."  
  
That was very true. Trowa nodded. "All right. We have to find some sort of food, the tools to fix this thing or a radio. Heero, can you draw up a few copies of the map for us?"  
  
"If I can find some paper."  
  
"There was mapping paper in the wheelhouse," Wufei said, dully.  
  
"Good," Trowa said. "Heero, you go with him. Duo, do you know where the kitchen is?"  
  
He nodded. "Yeah, Hee-chan and I found it on the way, and once I've been somewhere, I remember it."  
  
"Could you go down there and see if you can find some food?"  
  
He stood up and stretched, then sighed and nodded. "Yeah, whatever." With an aggravated sigh, he quickly headed off down one of the residential halls and was gone.  
  
"Trowa..."  
  
He looked up at his lover, then smiled, weakly. //Well, it could be worse.//  
  
Quatre frowned, then hugged himself. "I don't like this...it feels wrong..."  
  
Trowa's smile strengthened and he got up, enfolding the blonde in his arms. "I know...but it isn't like we really have a choice."  
  
"No, that isn't what I mean...everything feels so wrong for some reason...like we shouldn't be here."  
  
"You're right," the green-eyed boy sighed. "We shouldn't, but we are and now we're stranded."  
  
Quatre pouted, angrily. "I told you this was bad."  
  
"And I was wrong and I'm sorry..."  
  
"Sorry? We might die here and you're sorry. That's nice." The blonde pulled from his arms and headed off across the dusty floor of the ballroom toward the hall in which he had found that strange doll. It was still tucked under his arm, where it had been for the last hour.  
  
Trowa sighed. "Quatre--"  
  
"I need to think," he spat. "I'll be back later."  
  
He sighed, then dropped back into the overstuffed chair and sighed. //God...trapped, and now Quatre hates me...this is just wonderful...//  
  
Why had he suggested this in the first place? There had been no point to it. Certainly, going on a cruise would have been a blast, but no, he had wanted to prove that he was talented in more than a few ways by suggesting they take Quatre's sailboat out on their own. He was no captain, after all, and now they were lost in the middle of the ocean, without supplies or a way of contact leading to the world on dry land.  
  
The worst part, excluding that Quatre was angry with him? It was HIS fault, and now there was a good chance he and his friends would die.  
  
He sat back in the chair, exposing his throat as his head lolled back over the headrest. //I am such an idiot...this couldn't get any worse...//  
  
~  
  
"What's this?"  
  
Wufei looked up at Heero, who was holding up an untitled book. "Voyage log. Lists of all the people on-board each trip."  
  
He inspected it, then flipped it open. It had dates upon dates and pages upon pages of names of at least a dozen voyages carrying a thousand people each time, but that was all. After that, the book was blank. "Is there a CAPTAIN'S log?" he asked.  
  
Wufei looked up from his searching again. "Why?"  
  
Heero shrugged. //I wonder how this thing got all the way out here...// He absently pocketed the novel-sized book, then went to the helm, setting his hands gently on the ancient wheel, which was half rotten and missing fifty perfect of itself. Slowly, he looked up, his cautious, ready eyes scanning across the calm, dark sea in the red light. The cloud-cover hadn't lifted, and the light of the sunset dyed it a shade of crimson that made it seem as if the sky was on fire. The ocean, lacking the light of the sky, was as black as onyx, or perhaps obsidian.  
  
Obsidian was an igneous, glass-like rock that was made when molten lava from a volcanic eruption cooled just right, and it was one of the darkest substances. Yes, the ocean looked to be made of just that, and the sky of the lava that created it, pouring down and cooling in the sea to make obsidian. It would have been creepy to many, or a bad omen to others, but from where Heero was standing, it was beautiful.  
  
He wasn't sure why, but morbid things struck him as beautiful, while calm, blue skies and green meadows made him uncertain--even frightened him. He assumed that it was because he was so used to death and carnage that his perspective had been warped to a good extent. Anything calm he had ever known had been untrustworthy and turned to gory torment and eventual doom, while things like the gory battlefields and fiery walls of death that had been the war were simple, straightforward torment and doom. As his mentor and adoptive father, Odin Lowe, had taught him: the path of least resistance is the one most likely to be a trap or worse. Certainly, it wasn't the old gentle caution of the old days, but it had saved his life many times.  
  
"Heero."  
  
He looked up. "What is it?"  
  
The Asian pilot set a copy of the map in his hands. "Here. You'll need this."  
  
He inspected the map, which was a perfect copy of the blueprints of the ship. "Thank you."  
  
"I have three others and the blueprint, so I think we should be all right."  
  
Heero nodded. "All right."  
  
~  
  
"I found food," Duo said, waving a bag of chips in front of Trowa's face. "C'mon...you know you want it."  
  
He sighed. "Not hungry, you eat them."  
  
"Nah, they're stale," the brunette said, smirking. Then, it faded as he saw the look on Trowa's face. "Why so blue, T?"  
  
"Quatre's angry at me."  
  
"For what, getting us lost? And stranded?"  
  
Trowa scowled up at the young man, who quickly recoiled. "Excuse me, WHOSE idea was it to get on this damn deathtrap?"  
  
"Hey, don't blame ME!" Duo exclaimed, defensively. "I was just asking..."  
  
He sighed, then sat back in his chair as the blonde came back once again, still carrying that creepy doll. "Quatre, are you going to talk to me yet?"  
  
The boy said nothing. He sat down in a chair nearby and pulled the doll from under his arm, then began inspecting it, as if Trowa hadn't spoken.  
  
"Hey, what's that?" Duo was playing peacemaker, as he usually did when they fought, which was rare. He was Quatre's best friend and Trowa's...well, he was Trowa's best friend's boyfriend. It sort of helped. He hopped down next to the Sandrock pilot, looking at the odd little creature. "Where'd you get that?"  
  
"I found it in the hallway up there," he replied, gesturing absently. "It belonged to some young passenger. I personally find it interesting."  
  
Duo poked at it. "Hey, it's like a zombie doll! Only half a face, and it's all messed up."  
  
Quatre nodded. "Yes, It was probably made by hand...I want to find the room of the child that owned this, so I can put it where it belongs. I wonder if they have a list of the people on the voyage somewhere..."  
  
"Hey, look here!" Duo poked a finger at a section of the doll's marred and colorful hide. "What's that say?"  
  
Curious, Trowa cocked his head and squinted. There was something written on the back of its left leg in bad handwriting.  
  
"It says...Jake..."  
  
"You think it belongs to a little boy named Jake?" Duo asked, sitting down and cracking open the bag of chips. He offered one to Quatre, who quickly demurred, then stuck it in his mouth with a loud crunch. "Hmm...not bad for being so old." He shrugged.  
  
"Possibly..."  
  
Heero and Wufei arrived. "Any food Duo?"  
  
"Chips, and some old bones, but other than that, there isn't a damn thing."  
  
Wufei sighed. "Figures." He dropped a bundle of rolled-up paper on the floor at Trowa's feet. "Maps, copied and ready, but I don't see the point, because there's no food and no way off this damn thing."  
  
"Yeah, we'll all starve within days," Quatre muttered, hugging the mutant clown doll.  
  
The Asian pilot scoffed. "Not Maxwell, he's got enough fat on him to survive for a few WEEKS."  
  
"*HEY*!"  
  
"Don't talk about him like that, Wufei," Heero said, threateningly.  
  
"What are YOU going to do about it?"  
  
As Heero pulled his gun, Trowa intervened and grabbed the barrel, wrenching it from his hand, then flipped it and put it to his head. "Look," he spat, irritated beyond reason, "You're not the only one that wants to get the hell out of here, but the only way we WILL get off this ship is if we work together and either find a radio that works or fix the damn ship itself. Other than that, we die. As far as I can see, we don't have a lot of options, so all of you need to shut up and get in gear. We're Gundam pilots, damn it, and we're acting like children! We haven't got time for this and, personally, I HAVEN'T GOT THE PATIENCE." He smacked the gun back into Heero's open hand. "We can do this if we act like the adults that we are instead of the children we used to be. God knows, if we had to, we could fix this thing. It floats, so all we'd have to do is find the tools. Heero, you've been taking care of yourself and Zero ever since God knows when, and I've been a mechanic since I was seven. If we find a radio, broken or not, we may be saved, because Duo, you're a communications whiz. Wufei has the survival skills to keep us alive and--" he paused as he noted Quatre hadn't even bothered to do what he was doing. He turned on him. "For Christ sake, Quatre, YOU should be giving this speech!"  
  
"DON'T SHOUT AT ME!" he roared back, surprising the others. He stood up and leered at Trowa. "*I* did my part, Trowa," he hissed, darkly. "I warned you that I had a bad feeling about this whole thing and you acted like I was being childish. This is YOUR fault, so YOU can handle it, WITHOUT *ME*." With that, the young Winner heir turned on the heel of his shoe and marched away down the residential hall he had come back from not ten minutes prior.  
  
The ballroom was dead silent as the pilots stood there, all of them stricken, but none more hurt than Trowa. The little blonde had never been angry with him, and that outburst had reminded him a little too much of the time he had nearly killed him. He loved Quatre more than anything, and he had not only hurt him but made him angry and forced him to lash out against him. Slowly, he sunk back into the chair and closed his eyes, willing the entire thing to be a nightmare. It hurt too much to be real.  
  
A hand grasped his shoulder and he was sure it was Duo by the feel of it. He wasn't as strong as Wufei or Heero, and he wasn't too proud to lower himself and offer assistance, no matter how futile. "Trowa..."  
  
"Please, just don't," he said, flatly, trying desperately to keep the pain from his voice. It was another one of those times that he wished he hadn't started feeling again, because when one felt, one hurt.  
  
Duo knelt in front of him (he could tell because of the footsteps and the sudden weight on his knees) and leaned on his thighs, looking up at him in an attempt to draw his attention. "Aww, come on, Trowa. He'll be okay...just let him get it out of his system and he'll be all right."  
  
"But it IS my fault," he murmured, hopelessly. Certainly, Quatre would forgive him in time, but he was having trouble believing that it would be any time soon.  
  
"No it isn't. It was me, Heero and Wufei that said we should come aboard, and I tied the boat up. Maybe the rope just broke--that would be my fault. See? It wasn't you."  
  
"I didn't LISTEN to him, Duo. He told me he had a bad feeling, and I brushed it off, thinking he was just afraid. I should have known better..."  
  
"Nah, you keep forgetting that you're only human, Trowa," the brunette said, smiling warmly up at him. "Lucky for you, Quatre DOES know that you are and that you made a mistake about it, and it will be okay once he cools down and remembers that mistakes aren't evil. I mean, as long as we have each other, everything should be fine, shouldn't it?"  
  
Even the assertive one. He sighed and weakly smiled at him. "All right..." He only hoped that Quatre would come back soon, so he could hold him and grovel like there was no tomorrow. He loved him, and he needed him, especially when in such a tight spot. Otherwise, he would once again become what he had been so long ago...unfeeling, ready and willing to die without pause or qualm, and he did not want that. He wasn't ready to become his former self, Nanashi, ever again, but he could feel the edges of the blankness quickly creeping up on him. //Hurry back, koi...I need you to be with me...//  
  
~  
  
Quatre held up his candle as he passed into the next corridor, looking from one wall of doors to the next, then down at the floor, momentarily admiring the jade carpeting. It seemed that all the wings of halls were color coordinated, because the carpeting of the residential wings was green, the main hallways were red, the dining hall was blue, et cetera, and it all led to the ballroom, which wasn't carpeted at all. It was all so interesting...  
  
The green color glowing in the light made him think of Trowa's beautiful eyes, and that, of course, led to his thinking of the owner of those eyes. That was depressing. He quickly pushed the picture of the handsome young man from his mind. He was angry with him! He couldn't miss him if he was angry with him!  
  
His heart froze as the candle flickered out and a melody caught him off- guard. It was soft and floaty, like the music of a baby piano or maybe a music box, with an odd rhythm like 'Dee Dee, Da Da, Dum, Da Dee...Dee Dee, Da Da, Dee.' The question was, where was it coming from? "Hello?" he called. His voice echoed deafly down the long, door-lined corridor and faded.  
  
There was no answer, but as he commenced his journey down the corridor, the music became steadily louder. A soft, childish giggle echoed out, whimsically. It sounded like a little girl...  
  
"Hello?" he repeated. "Is someone there?"  
  
Suddenly, the music became louder still and a soft, innocent voice began to sing to it...  
  
{{"Come with me to my special place/come to me, let me see your face/come with me to a world of grace/see how long you last..."}}  
  
Quatre swallowed hard. //That sounded like something from a horror flick, like Children of the Corn...an innocent evil...//  
  
Her song didn't stop, and the music got louder, playing the same cute yet eerie song.  
  
{{"Play with me...sing my song/come to me, it won't take long/you'll be sorry when you're wrong/see how long you last..."}}  
  
Then, he remembered Wufei's mention of a little girl with a music box that had demanded he play with her before cutting the rope to the Jade Prince and letting it go. Could this be her? It had to be! "Little girl!" Quatre called. He barely noticed as a gentle thud resounded.  
  
Her song stopped, though the music continued to play, and a bright light appeared at the end of the corridor, marred by the shadow of a small figure in a dress, holding a box with a refracted facet of light rotating in the center of it. It was her!  
  
The blonde pilot quickly hurried toward the light in hopes of finding some answers, but the light quickly faded as he approached and the music died off, leaving him in the dark hallway once again with his candle, which remained out. However, now that he was at the end of the hall, the light from a cabin around the corner halfway lit the area with the eerie, dull blue illumination of the night. He turned the corner and came across an open door, which led into a room.  
  
Curious, he stepped carefully around that corner into the next hall and peeked in the doorway, assuming this to be the area where the little girl had been.  
  
It was a room, carpeted with a green plush rug strewn with toys and decked with a pair of blue-fitted single beds that had mussed covers, a dresser covered with clothing and an oil lamp on a shelf. That was about all there was, excluding a door in the left-hand wall leading to the next room. The light outside the porthole window was dim, but it lit the room effectively.  
  
Then, his eyes locked on one of the beds. There was a little lump in the one furthest from the door, shivering slightly, and a sniffling could be heard just scarcely...  
  
Quatre looked around for a light switch and wasn't really surprised to find that there wasn't one. He set his candle down and approached the other bed. He reached a hand out and grasped the covers, then yanked them back roughly. What he surprised him.  
  
It was the little boy he had seen in the hall this afternoon! Dirty blonde hair, blue pajamas and so small one would think he wasn't even supposed to be walking. He was barely the size of a toddler! He was crunched into a ball, shuddering and sniffling. "Please don't hurt me!" he squeaked.  
  
Quatre had found throughout his life that he had a strange nurturing instinct that made him more effeminate than he would care to admit, so this touched him. He was so cute and fragile! He sat down and set a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay!" he whispered, rubbing the boy's back tenderly. "It's okay...I won't hurt you..."  
  
He looked up, his wide, gray eyes shining, then he jumped into Quatre's arms, hugging him. He really WAS tiny, less than three feet tall and maybe thirty-five pounds! "Oh, it's you!"  
  
He blinked, then slowly began to rock the tiny boy in his arms, somewhat stunned but still ignoring the strange vibe he was getting. So odd... "Yes...what are you doing here by yourself?"  
  
"Hiding..."  
  
"From what?"  
  
"My Papa."  
  
Quatre brought the boy's adorable little face from his shoulder and sat him on his lap, then looked at him. The look on his face reminded him of how he had felt often as a child. "You're afraid of your father too, huh?"  
  
He nodded. "Yeah...my Momma saves me from him, but she's gone...have you seen my Momma? She's got long brown hair and pretty eyes, and she's really nice."  
  
Quatre's heart ached. He was alone...and his father was abusing him. "Sorry, but I haven't seen much of anything..."  
  
The boy's eyes started to glaze, but he didn't cry. He sniffled instead. "My Momma and my best friend are gone and my Papa's angry at me...I'm scared he's gonna find me...but if he finds YOU, it'll be worse."  
  
"Me? Why?"  
  
He opened his mouth, but a sound in the hall made him stop. Someone was coming? "Uh-oh...it's my Papa...you better go in the other room! Hurry and hide, or he might hurt you!"  
  
He blinked. "What about you?!"  
  
The boy shook his head and hopped out of his arms, then quickly shoved him toward the other door. "Hurry! Hide! I'll be fine!"  
  
Quatre tried to resist, but his chest flared with pain and his heart stopped momentarily, inflicting a pain so intense that he knew he was definitely in danger. Empathy flash. With an angered sigh, he ducked into the next room and closed the door almost all the way, leaving a crack wide enough to allow him a look into the other bedroom.  
  
A dark shadow entered the room in the form of a muscular man in slacks and a ripped undershirt. He had something in his hand, large and long, thinning into a point...  
  
A KNIFE!  
  
//Oh no...oh no, no, no!//  
  
The little boy had climbed into his bed, beneath his sheets, and was now shivering again as the indiscernible form moved towards it. A scratchy voice whispered out to him in a low voice, shaking strangely with possible insanity. "Oh, Toby..." he breathed. He chuckled peculiarly and raised the knife above the lump. "Come out...play a game with your Papa..."  
  
Quatre's heart stopped as the knife came down and he looked away, holding his ears against the oncoming scream, but it never came. He looked into the room and found it empty, untouched. He threw the door open, checking the floor and all around. As a bolt of lightning crashed outside, illuminating the dim chamber, it became apparent that no one was there.  
  
//No one...there's no one here...but how?// He got that creepy-crawly feeling up his spine and he suddenly felt unwelcome, but before he left, he checked the bed.  
  
There was a large, brown stain that covered the white sheets, and as he looked, the rancid smell of blood attacked his senses, making his eyes water and his stomach churn. He was utterly petrified, but his fear propelled him to the door.  
  
//Oh my God!// he thought, terrified. //This can't be happening! We're trapped on a haunted ship with a murdering GHOST!//  
  
His feet caught on something and he cried out in the darkness as he fell headlong on the floor, his face smacking flat on the carpet, which wasn't as soft as he had hoped it was. He quickly kicked what he had tripped on, then flipped over and grabbed it, squeezing it tightly in his fists to assure that it wouldn't hurt him.  
  
It gave in his grasp...it was soft...  
  
He brought it close to his face and looked at it through the darkness. It was the clown doll! He must have dropped it when that little girl had surprised him! The sight of it gave him a tiny bit of relief, but the need to run was still very prominent. //Whew...it's only the doll...//  
  
Through the darkness, that plastic smile grinned up at him, so creepy though it was meant to be comforting. The purple star-eye seemed to glitter with mischief, and that smile, so false and strange...  
  
His mind began to wander briefly. The face of the clown doll...it was like a mask...Trowa's mask...  
  
//Trowa!// God, he wanted to see Trowa! He got up and felt his way along the rows of doors in hopes of groping his way back to the stairwell, the doll clutched to his chest so tightly it was amazing it didn't go flat.  
  
Then, that music started again, that creepy, loud 'Dee Dee, Da Da, Dum, Da Dee...Dee Dee, Da Da, Dee' again, and a blinding light blared through the hall, lighting his way. The hair on the back of his neck went ridged as the singing commenced.  
  
{{"Come with me to my special place/come to me, let me see your face/come with me to a world of grace/see how long you last.../play with me...sing my song/come to me, it won't take long/you'll be sorry when you're wrong/see how long you last..."}}  
  
The awful song continued no matter how he tried to ignore it, and finally, he stopped and looked at the doll out of impulse. In the blaring light, a stain of deep crimson red became evident against the chest, and that grin almost seemed to become more maniacal.  
  
Quatre closed his eyes and rushed up the stairs, yelling as loudly as he could in hopes of drowning out the song as he ran. "STOP IT! STOP! STOP! STOP! STOP!!!"  
  
He reached the top of the stairs and kept running, his eyes shut tightly as he ran blindly into the hall that led into the ballroom. His heart was pounding so hard that he could scarcely breathe, and the only reason he knew he was in the ballroom area was because of the light.  
  
Something grabbed him and he screamed, terrified beyond himself.  
  
"Quatre! Quatre! It's me!"  
  
He opened his eyes and looked up at Trowa, who was holding him by the shoulders. Tossing the doll aside, he latched onto his koibito and cried, shuddering so violent that he could barely keep his feet before he was lifted into the air.  
  
"Quatre, what happened?"  
  
He hugged him tightly, trying so hard to force the picture of the little boy from his mind. The smell of blood stayed with him, and the song of the girl resounded in his head, making him cry harder. "TROWA! PROTECT ME, PLEASE!"  
  
"Always, Little One, always, but tell me, what's wrong?"  
  
Quatre took several deep breaths and sighed, nuzzling Trowa's neck and inhaling his spicy scent. "Just hold me...please, just hold me..."  
  
**** ~  
  
Yet again, the party of boys were being watched. {"Aww, he won't play with me either?"} She frowned as the tall mortal walked quickly away with the blonde one cuddled against his chest, then shrugged. {"Guess I'll just have to make them ALL play with me...I wonder if I should bring out more friends for them to play with...hmm...hee hee! I LIKE this game!"}  
  
~  
  
Little did the young ghost know that she, too, was being watched, and by one of her own. The difference was, this one WASN'T looking for a game that could result in MORE deaths on the floating tomb. {"Someone has to stop her before it happens again,"} he murmured to himself, sadly. {"Too many times before has this occurred and it MUST end in order to free us...but to stop her game, I might just have to play it. I certainly hope these mortals are stronger than the last ones, or else they stand no chance against the evil herein."}  
  
****  
  
TBC 


	3. Angelic Apparition

Xandra: Yes, yes, this took a long time, and my computer crashing, my disk glitching and my life sucking didn't help. Those of you who read this and have read Lover's Last Chance, please be a bit more patient. My computer crashed a few weeks ago and took every one of my updates to hell, so it will take a while longer to recover. Thanx for waiting. ^_^  
  
****  
  
The Devil's Triangle: Trapped on the Obsidian Rosemary  
  
By Xandra  
  
Chapter Three: Angelic Apparition  
  
****  
  
"See? I TOLD you there was a ghost!" Wufei spat at Duo, who shrugged weakly.  
  
Quatre shuddered in Trowa's arms. "More than one...three...that little girl, a boy and a...a man or...SOMETHING...with a knife that..." he trailed off, his eyes sparkling.  
  
Trowa quickly shushed him and began cradling him like a baby, kissing his tears away tenderly. "It's okay, angel...do you want me to go down there with you?"  
  
"No!" the blonde exclaimed, clinging to him. "I won't have anyone down there again! It's...it's evil down there, I sense it."  
  
Trowa decided that it would be a VERY good idea to listen to his love this time. "Right. No one goes down to the residential corridor."  
  
The others nodded their agreement.  
  
"We should probably find somewhere to sleep for the night," Wufei commented. "It gets cold on these old ships after sunset."  
  
He was right, it WAS getting pretty cold. "We'll sleep here," Trowa said, resolutely. "Quatre's confirmed that the residential corridors aren't safe, so we'll have to find a maid's closet or something where we can find blankets. In the morning, we'll get to work on trying to get this old tanker running. Sound good?"  
  
They all nodded, but not one of them looked very convinced.  
  
A garbled roar suddenly rung out, echoing around the chamber and startling them all.  
  
Trowa blinked. "What was that?"  
  
Wufei threw a thumb toward Duo. "Him."  
  
"Sorry," the braided boy said, blushing. "Guess I'm hungry."  
  
"You're ALWAYS hungry, Maxwell. You'd probably eat the REST of us if we gave you the chance."  
  
"HEY! YOU MAKE ONE MORE FAT JOKE ABOUT ME AND I'LL BREAK EVERY BONE IN YOUR GODDAMN BODY!"  
  
"You're so damn weak that you couldn't do that--" Then, Wufei paused and smirked, standing up. "Well, maybe if you SAT on me."  
  
"Grrr ...THAT DOES IT!!!" Duo's eyes seemed to catch fire as he leapt to his feet and attempted to tackle the other pilot.  
  
Heero jumped up and caught the boy around his waist, holding him back with serious difficulty. He grunted as Duo began to struggle, his elbow coming into contact with the Perfect Soldier's cheekbone. "Damn it, Wufei!"  
  
"Lemme go, Heero! I'll KILL him!"  
  
Wufei dodged out of reach of the braided pilot and smirked. "And what would you do, pray tell, with my body? You'd eat me, of course."  
  
"That's enough!" Trowa barked. No one was listening to him anymore.  
  
"Trowa..." Quatre whispered. "It's happening..."  
  
He looked down at the blonde boy in his arms. "What?"  
  
"There's evil here...I can feel it...it feeds on our frustration--it's turning us against each other, making us fight when we get even a little upset...it's...it's trying to separate us..."  
  
He looked up and blinked as he witnessed what held a frightening resemblance to a WAR. The two weren't just pushing and shoving anymore, they were WAILING on each other. "THAT IS ENOUGH!" he shouted over the racket.  
  
"I'll KILL you, you little--!"  
  
"Get your fat ass off me!"  
  
"I'M NOT *FAAAT*!"  
  
The green-eyed pilot quickly interceded, stepping between the two and holding them away from each other. It didn't work for long, however, because Duo slammed into him to get past and sent all three of them sprawling to the floor. Immediately, the moment they were free from his grasp, they attacked each other again. "Damn it, STOP!" Trowa jumped onto Duo's back and ripped him away from Wufei, then flipped over on top of him and pinned him, face-down, onto the floor, holding his left arm backward over his head in a lock.  
  
Quatre helped Wufei up. "Are you all right?"  
  
"Yeah...just a little dirty. That sissy couldn't hurt me."  
  
"That's enough of that," the blonde said. "We're bickering over nothing, and YOU need to quit starting things, or next time, that SISSY might just strangle you."  
  
"GET OFF, TROWA!"  
  
He caught Duo's other arm as it flew back at him, then changed his grip from the elbow to the bicep and pulled his other arm into the lock, wringing a cry from his victim. He didn't want to hurt him this way, but there was no reasoning with Duo Maxwell in a rage like this. Only pain made him see reason, and if he had to, he'd hog-tie him with his hair to make him see it. "Calm down, Duo! Calm down!"  
  
"OWW! I'LL SHOW YOU FAT, CHANG! I *DARE* YOU TO TRY SOMETHIN', COWARD!"  
  
"COWARD?!"  
  
"ACK!" Quatre cried as Wufei ripped away from him. He caught his wrists and locked his feet down on the floor, but though the boy was brave, he wasn't very strong. Wufei easily began to drag him along. "HEERO!"  
  
The dark-haired pilot quickly got a hold on the Asian one as Trowa continued to torture Duo into silence. "Don't hurt him too much, Trowa," Heero called.  
  
"Duo, I'll break your nose if you say ONE MORE WORD to Wufei!" he threatened.  
  
"Get OFF me!"  
  
Trowa pushed harder on his arms, expecting that sooner or later they would both either pop out of socket or flat out break. He privately wondered which arm would go first. At this rate, it wouldn't be long! "Duo, I am warning you right now to calm your self the fuck down before I really hurt you. This is your last chance, and then I will DISLOCATE your SHOULDER, and if you think I'm bluffing, try me."  
  
Duo stopped struggling and began to take slow, deep, forced breaths as Heero slammed Wufei into the nearest wall, immediately shutting him up.  
  
"I'm not as tolerant as Trowa, Wufei, and I'll rip your leg off the moment you try to hit Duo, am I clear?"  
  
Wufei didn't say anything, but that was a good sign.  
  
Trowa grabbed a handful of Duo's braid and pulled his head up. "Are you finished now?"  
  
"Owwowwoww! I'm calm already! CALM! SEE THE CALM?!"  
  
The green-eyed man let go of him, dropping his head with a thump, and stood him up, then shoved him with his foot up to a nearby chair. "Have a seat," he commanded. Duo grudgingly did so. "I've had it with both of you. I have very little patience left, but someone has to keep a level mind in this madness. Fighting wastes energy that can be used for better things, and we'll need all the physical and mental energy we can muster to survive this."  
  
"Trowa's right," Heero said, pushing Wufei onto the old sofa. "Our mission while we are trapped here is to stay alive, and in order to do that, we can't fight each other. We have been a team for over five years, and we will stay a team to the end, and as far as I am concerned, there is no choice of failure. I am not dying on this wreck, and I am damn sure you two don't want to either."  
  
Duo and Wufei looked ashamed of themselves, and with good right. Thank God for good backup! Heero was a hell of a motivational speaker!  
  
Quatre sighed, putting a hand to his forehead. "Amen. Now, can we please stop this and try to find a place to get some blankets?"  
  
Trowa nodded, then unrolled his copy of the blueprint and gestured to Heero, who was at his side in a blink. "Well, now that we have our little issue of pointless bickering out of the way--help me read this. It's labeled in code, it seems."  
  
Heero nodded. "Yeah, it's written with it so passengers couldn't go looking at maps or schematics like this and breaking into places they didn't belong. I understand it, though. Each number could stand for one of three to four letters, starting at the beginning of the alphabet. If you think of it like a phone, it's simple. Just guess and check until the numbers are words."  
  
Trowa paused, concentrating on what he remembered of phone-codes. //ABC is two, GEF is three...huh, that's pretty unoriginal.// He fished in the pocket of his jeans for a pen, which he easily found, then tapped it against a large section of the map all by itself. "The code here is...36446317666. Let's see..." He quickly wrote out the numbers zero through nine and the letters A through Z nearby, then quickly made a key out of the various figures that looked something like this:  
  
1=nothing 2=ABC, 3=DEF, 4=GHI, 5=JKL, 6=MNO, 7=PQRS, 8=TUV, 9=WXYZ, 0=nothing  
  
"Hmm...since one and zero have no numbers, perhaps they are spaces between two words?"  
  
Heero nodded. "It looks that way. So...it's really 364463 space 7666. Two words. Now, seven could be any of four letters, but the only probable four- letter word on a ship with any one of these in it would be 'room.' So...7666 is R-O-O-M. Room."  
  
Duo rolled his eyes. "Geez, man, how can you two stand there and do that? Stuff like that hurts my head!"  
  
Trowa immediately looked at Wufei, expecting an ignorant comment, but it didn't come. The Asian pilot stayed quiet. He turned his attention back to the blueprint-map. "All right so we have 'something room'. Now, the double four in the first set of numbers is unlikely to be the same letter twice, being that none of them seem to fit that way, but maybe..." He paused as he spotted it. "E...N...G...I...N and E. Engine. Engine room."  
  
Heero smirked and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Congratulations, you are now a code-cracker."  
  
Duo and Quatre applauded.  
  
"Bravo!"  
  
"That was sharp, man!"  
  
He smirked. //At this rate, I could be on Jeopardy in no time.// "Now that I've got the hang of it, Heero, you and I will decode the rest of the schematic, then transfer the area names onto the other maps, so we can find some kind of utility closet or something in order to get some supplies."  
  
"You make one hell of a leader, Trowa," Heero said with a smirk. "Why weren't you this resourceful back when we were fighting the White Fang?"  
  
He shrugged. "Quatre had it covered. I work well under direction, but I tend to take the wheel in tight spots. I've lived my life in a tight spot, so I'm sort of used to operating in them."  
  
"Unlike normal people, who freeze up, freak out and try to kill each other," Duo muttered, wryly. "Thank God for abnormal people."  
  
Trowa decided to ignore that comment and turned his attention back to the schematic again. "It should take roughly an hour to get all of this translated properly and labeled, and then we can nominate someone to go and get us the supplies."  
  
"I'll do it," Heero said.  
  
"I say, if the closet is down in the residential hall, WUFEI does it," Duo said, snidely.  
  
Wufei shook his head. "Forget it. That little girl was enough; I am NOT going to face an armed enemy that I can't fight back against."  
  
"Enough!" Trowa snapped, feeling like someone's father, "Shut up and let us decode this, or you BOTH will go down there and CAMP OUT!"  
  
Duo frowned. "Who died and made you leader?"  
  
It was happening again. Trowa scowled. "No one has died yet, thanks to some much-needed teamwork, but at this rate, someone just might."  
  
"That had better not be a threat, Barton," Duo spat.  
  
He rolled his eyes. "I don't need threats, and I wouldn't kill you anyway. It would be a waste of resources and my thinning patience to kill you, but one of the spirits on this ship might not be as tolerant as I am, especially if one of them slaughtered a little boy in the past and is still lurking."  
  
Duo didn't speak again.  
  
"Wow, even I can't get him to shut up sometimes, short of gagging him," Heero muttered as he decoded yet another label. He'd found the dining hall, which was near the kitchen.  
  
"I've been told I have a way with words."  
  
"I wonder why they would said that."  
  
**** ~  
  
Quatre sat silently by for the hour or so it took Trowa and Heero to finish translating the map, watching his koi and concentrating on nothing but him. He knew if he stopped thinking about Trowa for even a moment, he would start to get scared again, so he kept his mind on his admiration for the Silencer. He had come so far from where he had started, when they had met the first time. He had always been this intelligent and resourceful, but his social skills had been unutilized, his heart frozen over. However, after the war had ended, almost five years ago, Trowa had been confused by his new emotions. He had learned to feel and care, as Heero had, and it had messed him up badly, being that he was used to not feeling at all, period.  
  
It had taken a lot of work on Quatre's part, but now he was a normal, caring person, though still very stoic at times. It was easier for him to open up, and now that he could stand to relate to others and love his friends, his true ingenuity--the genius he had harbored all his life in silence--was being expressed. It was admirable, all right. Trowa had survived so much without any recognition for his struggles, and now he was helping four others to survive as well. He was a very strong man.  
  
"Finished," he said, finally. "Heero, how are you doing copying this onto the other maps?"  
  
"Just about done."  
  
"Good. Now, while you finish that, we have to decide who will go to the storage room to get us blankets and hopefully some other things to help us." He stood and stretched, then doubled over backwards, yawning momentarily before flipping up onto his hands. With a small push, he did a backward cartwheel and landed upright.  
  
"Dude, that will never get any less creepy to me," Duo said, shaking his head. "What are you made of, rubber?"  
  
"I should hope not," Trowa said, wryly. "Now, first thing, Quatre will NOT be going. He's gone through enough. Since both he and Wufei have met with hostile ghosts, allowing them to go further below deck would be unwise, so they will stay here. However, they may need protection, so Heero, I suggest you stay with them. You are armed, and though I doubt you could really hurt an celestial being with your gun, it might give them enough of a scare if you shot a bullet or two through them."  
  
"But they're solid," Quatre objected, recalling how the young ghost, Toby, had crawled right into his arms. "I held that little boy because he was scared. If we can touch them, that might mean that they can touch us."  
  
"True," Trowa said. "All the more reason why Heero should be here."  
  
"But that leaves it between you and Duo!" the blonde exclaimed, suddenly on- guard. Trowa was trying to slowly nominate himself for it, because he knew Heero wouldn't allow Duo to go alone, even though he couldn't go with him. He was being sneaky again! He had to hand it to him, though--Trowa was tactful. "I don't want EITHER of you going below deck alone! Sure, that little girl is creepy, but SHE didn't have a KNIFE! That other one is down there and he might be dangerous!"  
  
"Perhaps if we went together," Trowa suggested.  
  
Duo shrugged. "I could deal with that. Besides," he added, reaching beneath his T-shirt collar and producing a cross, "I'm armed in my own way."  
  
Quatre frowned. His best friend and his boyfriend were going right over his head! "Please, don't go down there..." he begged.  
  
"SOMEONE has to, love," the green-eyed ex-pilot said, gently. He knelt in front of Quatre, taking his hands and kissing them. "I'll be fine, don't worry, and Duo is MORE than capable of taking care of himself. Besides, if anything goes wrong, I can back him up, and he can cover me. That's why there will be two of us. I've read that ghosts don't like to appear to more than one person at a time, because they are afraid of us in ways, and anyway, they only appear to those who are either in their space or remind them of a time when they were alive. I bet if we stay together and out of the residential corridor, we should be fine."  
  
"I don't like it, Trowa...bad vibes."  
  
"I know, but someone has to do it--period."  
  
Quatre sighed. There was no use arguing with a man that had his mind made up, especially when that man was Trowa Barton. He slid down off the couch and wrapped his arms around the brunette's neck, hugging him tightly to his chest. "Please, be careful."  
  
He felt him smile into the front of his shirt. "I promise, I'll be fine, and if I get hurt--"  
  
"NO!" Quatre yelled, his voice echoing. "Don't you DARE even THINK of that!"  
  
"Very well, I understand." Trowa gave him a supportive smile, then lifted him back onto the sofa and patted his knee. He stood and kissed him on the forehead. "I give you my word, I will not allow anything to harm me."  
  
"You had better not," Quatre pouted, "Or I'LL harm you."  
  
He smirked, then nodded. "All right, but no matter what, do NOT leave the ballroom. I want you to stay right here with Heero and Wufei, and I don't care if it takes us all night, do NOT come looking for us. The only one I will authorize to leave this place is Heero, and only if we aren't back by the time it's completely dark outside, and I mean PITCH black, am I clear?"  
  
"Affirmative," Heero said.  
  
Wufei nodded. "Got it."  
  
Quatre didn't say anything, because he still didn't approve of Trowa going downstairs when it was almost night. The sun had set a long time ago, but there was still dim light outside. The idea of Trowa walking around down there with that murdering specter prowling didn't make him any more comfortable about being on the haunted ship in the dark. Sure, they had a few candles that Duo had collected from around the ballroom and upper hallways, but after what he'd seen...  
  
"Quatre, you aren't going to come after me. I need to hear you promise me that you won't."  
  
"I can't, Trowa."  
  
"Quatre--"  
  
He suddenly felt another swell of violent stress and he let it out. "TROWA, LISTEN TO ME!" he shrieked. "I AM NOT GOING TO SIT BY AND LET YOU DIE BECAUSE YOU *TOLD* ME TO! *FORGET* IT!"  
  
"WELL *I* AM NOT GOING TO LET YOU PUT YOURSELF IN DANGER FOR *MY* SAKE!" Trowa shouted back, his voice echoing eerily around the ballroom. He took him by his shoulders and locked him in a fiery stare that was almost terrifying in its intensity, and he drew in a slow, shaking breath before he began again, reclaiming his original volume. "Quatre, I can take care of myself and I don't need you to protect me, but if anything happens to you, I will KILL myself, and if you think that's irrational or a bluff, you're wrong on both counts. I can defend myself quite effectively, but I wouldn't be able to function knowing that YOU were down there with me somewhere, possibly lost or afraid as you were earlier. If you listen to nothing that I say now, remember this: YOU, Quatre, are my only true support--my one weakness--and if I allow you to be put in peril, I will end up getting hurt or even dying while I attempt to save you. This is why I need to know for a fact that you will STAY HERE with Heero, so he can protect you. I want you to promise me, if not for your own safety, then for mine. I can't do this with the possibility of your being in danger floating in the back of my head, angel, I can't."  
  
The blonde stared into his koibito's eyes, trapped in the inferno burning behind the fear-glazed jade lenses. He was dead serious, and he knew that what he said was true. He had seen Trowa go down in battle because he himself had been at risk, or had put another at risk, like the time he had lost his mind at the helm of the Zero and almost killed he and Heero both. He had almost lost him that time, all because he had been foolish. Was he willing to risk it again, just because he was stubborn?  
  
"Please," Trowa said, his grasp on Quatre's shoulders tightening, "If you love me...you will promise me that you'll stay here, where I know you'll be safe."  
  
He sighed, then leaned forward and kissed him without a word. Defeated, as usual, he gave him a last hug. "I promise...but only because I love you too much...and because I know you're strong."  
  
Trowa smiled and stroked the back of his hand against his cheek a moment before standing and grabbing a candle from the pile. "Thank you, Quatre. Your faith in me is much appreciated."  
  
Duo grabbed a candle too, then mussed the blonde's hair and kissed Heero on his cheek. "Well, we're not getting anything done standing around looking cute, so let's get going! We got stuff to find before it's COMPLETELY dark!"  
  
The taller youth nodded, then grabbed a match from the box they had found and lit his candle. "Of course. Let's go, Duo."  
  
Quatre watched in silence as the pair disappeared into the hall opposite the one he himself had taken to find that little boy ghost, Toby, then sighed and leaned back. "I don't like this," he whispered.  
  
Heero took a seat next to him. "Neither do I, but we have no choice now. We'll just have to do what we can to get off this ship."  
  
The blonde heir frowned and buried his face in his hands. There was only one thing in his mind at that moment that took priority over his fear for his koi's safety, and that was his own foolishness. "Oh, I wish I hadn't suggested this!" he cried, angrily. "We'd all be safe if it weren't for me!"  
  
"You were only trying to help," Wufei said, suddenly, "and we all know that. No one blames you, Quatre."  
  
"That's right," Heero agreed, giving him a supportive pat on the back. "There's nothing wrong with what you tried to do for us. After all, it's been a while, and it isn't like we couldn't use the quality time together after so long. There's no way you could have known about what would happen, so you can't honestly blame yourself."  
  
He sighed. //I can too,// he thought. //I just hope that Trowa and Duo will be okay.//  
  
**** ~  
  
"Ooh, splitting hallway," Duo observed as they came to a fork in the path. He looked at Trowa, who frowned and inspected his map. "Which way to the supply room, T?"  
  
The green-eyed youth checked it over quickly, then turned it over and looked at it again. "Damn it, there are so many forks down here that I really don't know."  
  
"Wha? Don't tell me you got us lost!"  
  
"HEY!" Trowa spat, angrily, leering down at him. "It is NOT my fault. I am working from a hundred-year-old blueprint by candlelight with YOU constantly nagging me. I do not need the stress, but thanks for offering."  
  
Duo frowned, then held up his candle and peered down the corridors separately, first to the left, then to the right. "Well, you're sure it's down one of these, right?"  
  
The taller man nodded. "Yes, I'm absolutely certain this was the way. I can't read my writing in this light and I left my contacts on the sailboat anyway, but I'm pretty sure that one of the rooms around here is a storage room."  
  
Sighing, he took a look at the map himself and looked between the chambers on the other side of the branching hallways. Trowa's handwriting was too neat for him to read, and his eyes were pretty bad anyway (Heero said it was because he was always on the computer, but that had nothing to do with it) but it didn't matter. "Okay, there's two halls and two of us, so I say we split up."  
  
"But the entire POINT of the both of us coming down here was so we could cover for each other, Duo," Trowa said, tensely. "If we get separated and end up on opposite sides of the ship, what are the others going to think? Heero is going to start shooting holes in the hull, Quatre is going to have a panic attack and pass out somewhere and Wufei is probably going to just sit there and watch it. There's no point in our splitting up."  
  
"Yeah there is!" Duo insisted. "Look, Trowa; it's cold, it's getting late, and I want to get back to Heero just as much as you wanna get back to Q, okay? If we split up, we can cover more ground, and besides, all we have to do is keep track of where we go and meet back here. If I don't find the supply room, I'll assume you did and come back here to wait for you. If you don't find it, I probably will, so you can meet me here."  
  
"I don't know," the stoic youth said, looking at the map again. He frowned. "If one of us gets lost..."  
  
"Hey, I won't get lost, man. I grew up on a metropolitan colony with nothing but blind alleys, dead ends and millions of buildings, danger lurking everywhere, and I never once got lost. I can handle myself, and I'm damn sure you can take anything that comes your way, dead or otherwise. Have you ever been lost in your life?"  
  
Suddenly, a dark look crossed the green-eyed acrobat's face and he scowled. "I've been lost all my life, Duo," his voice was so dark that it made the braided boy quiver momentarily, "and I'm not about to get any more lost just because you have a hunch."  
  
Duo felt his heart pang and he frowned. Oops, not a good way to phrase it. Now he was worried, annoyed AND guilty! Not exactly how he'd wanted to spend his vacation. "Trowa, I'm sorry..." he said, softly, "but...but what else can we do? I mean, we can't just let ourselves freeze, and we can't just stand here scratching our heads and hoping that we can make out this map. Please," he paused and took a deep breath, looking down at the green- carpeted floor, "As far as I can see, you're the leader, so make a decision. All I know is that I want to get back to Heero, and that I don't feel like starving or freezing, as if that matters. Make a choice already."  
  
There was a moment of thick silence, and as he stood there with Trowa, listening to the old steel boat's frame squeaking, the floors creaking and the water lapping at the outer shell with an almost sickening sloshing sound, Duo couldn't help but feel scared. Brave as he was, things like ghosts or any facsimile thereof had always scared him, and he didn't want to be down here for any longer than he had to be. He just wanted to get their supplies and hightail it back upstairs as fast as possible.  
  
Finally, Trowa answered. "All right. I'll take the right, you take the left, but it you come to a dead end or another split without finding anything, come back here. Don't go too far, I don't feel like losing track of you."  
  
With a sigh of relief, Duo nodded silently and checked his candle, then held his watch up to the light. It had stopped spinning hours ago, but it was completely dead now, not even so much as a tick. This wasn't very reassuring. "Okay, got'cha. If I find it, though, what do I do?"  
  
"Grab as much as you can carry of what you think we'll need, then come back here to wait for me. After we get the basics back to the others, we can make some marks on the carpet so we can find the way back to the supply room if we need it again. The basics we need are blankets, more candles, some matches and possibly some food, but other than that, we won't need much. Just grab what we need."  
  
"And if I find nothing, I come back?"  
  
"Right."  
  
"What if neither of us finds anything?"  
  
Trowa frowned. "Then we backtrack and start stripping some of the beds in the rooms we passed."  
  
He nodded again, and he and the green-eyed Silencer went their separate ways. He was nervous, but in a way, he was excited too. It was interesting, being on an old ghost liner that might have been around for centuries on end, fighting for his life again with his friends. It wasn't exactly the ideal adventure, but at least it was somewhat cool.  
  
Duo followed the hallway, walking at a brisk pace to keep himself from getting creeped out by the darkness that seemed to be reaching for him at all sides with shadowy fingers. He peeked in this room and that, keeping an eye open for any signs, as he had discovered all important rooms and chambers owned. There were plaques above all the offices on the other floors, like the captain's quarters and the kitchen and grand dining room, so maybe the supply room would be labeled.  
  
//God, why the hell is it so cold down here?// he thought, shivering as a breeze suddenly ripped past him without warning, seemingly from no where. It was chilly aboard the ship, but it had gone from forty degrees to zero in seconds, and he could see his own breath in the candlelight. He was shivering, and goosebumps were starting to spread across his skin as he continued on in silence. //This is getting way too weird...like something from a bad ghost movie...// He swallowed at the thought. //Maybe I shoulda stayed with Trowa...God knows, he can be scarier than any dead person most of the time...//  
  
He would have laughed at himself, had he not been freezing his American ass off and wondering why every flicker in the darkness seemed to move nearer to him, as if following him.  
  
Suddenly, he came to a sudden stop as something passed by his ear, like a breath, and without thinking, he spun around and looked back into the shadows, nearly dropping the candle.  
  
Nothing.  
  
Nothing at all. It was just a breeze...  
  
Sighing, Duo began to turn back around and froze in mid-motion as the candle's light flickered over a golden surface. His heart jumped into his throat and he choked, but not in fear.  
  
SERVICE/MAINTENANCE SUPPLY CHAMBER  
  
//YES! Found it!// With another relieved sigh, the braided boy grasped the glittering handle and gave it a twist, then opened the door and held up the candle, casting the warm light into the cool darkness of the room.  
  
It was about the size of a bedroom, and three of the four walls were lined with shelves to the ceiling, stacked with everything from bottles of soaps and incense to towels, blankets and candles, plus more. This was definitely the place.  
  
//Finally,// Duo thought as he stepped inside, brushing aside a curtain of cobwebs with his arm, frowning, //Something good happens. Let's just hope some of this stuff ISN'T infested with spiders. Ugh.//  
  
Upon thinking that, one of the creepy little creatures dropped onto his arm and he flinched, then flicked it away, scowling.  
  
//Eww, gross...okay, Duo, just get the stuff and get back to the others. No time to start freaking out over a bug...and darkness...and a whole bunch of sounds I can't explain...// He quailed, momentarily, taking a step back, then shook it off. //Enough! Come on, the others are depending on you!//  
  
With an annoyed sigh, he entered the dark room, holding the candle ahead of him with a frown firmly in place, and began searching around for proper blankets without moth holes or too much dust. There were a lot of them, but then again, it was a big liner with a lot of rooms, so of course there were a lot of them. He located a good-sized stack of clean sheets, finally, and quickly gathered them into his arms awkwardly, then turned to leave.  
  
And ran right into something that was NOT the door.  
  
He gasped and the candle fell from his grasp, but it stopped in midair a few inches from the floor and hovered back up to him. He blinked as the realization of what he had run into dawned on him. It had been warm and firm, but somewhat soft, and it had given a bit when he'd hit it, backing up. Without realizing it, he let the blankets fall from his arms.  
  
His candle hovered before him for a moment, and he realized that it hadn't actually flown at all, merely been caught. It was drawn upward, and the light cast itself over him--and another person. It was a man, and at first glance, had he not been so tall, Duo would have thought he was Quatre. No, he was blonde, but much too physically mature to be Quatre. It was an older man, amazingly handsome in a very dashing way, like the knights of old, with neat platinum hair and coppery eyes that glittered and reflected the flame burning on the candle's wick.  
  
Duo felt his knees beginning to give, and his self-set mission to get supplies for the others vanished from his mind. Was it humanly possible for anyone to be THAT beautiful? He'd never imagined anything like this man. Certainly, he loved Heero, and he was quite handsome naturally, but in the light of THIS man, he wasn't even cute. //Holy Christ...//  
  
The man smiled ever so gently, his tan features lit up by the candle he held. "Oh, hello," he said, softly, his voice as lovely as he was. "Did I frighten you? I apologize."  
  
"S'okay," Duo sighed, absently. He allowed his eyes the privilege of darting quickly over the other's form, and he was surprise to find that he was dressed in quite an odd way. He wore a black tailcoat of sorts, waist- length in the front and running to his knees in the back, matching slacks and a white dress shirt with the two uppermost collar buttons undone to reveal some of his chest. //God, he's beautiful...but where'd he come from?//  
  
The man smiled, then offered him his candle. "You are quite lucky I'm fast on my feet, for if I had not been, you might have lit yourself on fire."  
  
Duo accepted the candle, numbly. "Thank you..."  
  
The man smiled, then knelt and gathered the blankets the braided youth had dropped and dexterously folded them up again. Draping one over his arm, he offered the pile to him. "Here you are."  
  
He accepted them. "Who are you?" he asked, dazed.  
  
"Oh? How rude of me." Offering a gloved hand politely, the golden-haired man smiled, charmingly. "Mitchell Young."  
  
Duo tentatively extended his own hand, then shivered as the other's own enclosed it. //Wow...// His very touch sparked all new emotions in the Deathscythe pilot. In the back of his mind, he knew something was wrong, but he couldn't place it.  
  
Mitchell's smile never wavered as he beamed down at him endlessly, sunshine and warmth radiating from him. He took the unfolded blanket from his arm and draped it over the top of Duo's head, surprising him slightly. "You look cold...you shouldn't walk around in such an outfit."  
  
He blinked, then looked down at himself, at the familiar priest uniform. "What's wrong with my outfit?" he asked.  
  
"There's not enough to it."  
  
Huh? What? He was in a PRIEST uniform! How could their NOT be enough of it?! There was too MUCH of it as far as he was concerned! "Wha--"  
  
"You look as if you've caught a chill," Mitchell pointed out, suddenly. "And you're clothing is a bit wrinkled. Have you been wet recently?"  
  
"Um...yes, I..." He paused. "I went swimming."  
  
The golden-haired man chuckled, handsomely. "Ah. In your clothing?"  
  
"Desperate times," he sighed.  
  
Mitchell nodded, tolerantly, then inclined his head ever so slightly. "If you'll allow me to be fresh, you're rather beautiful, wrinkled and ill or not."  
  
He blinked, blushing unwillingly. "Really?"  
  
"Indeed."  
  
"Oh..." Duo then felt a question float from the fog of his mind and it came out before he could consider it. "You're an angel, aren't you?"  
  
Mitchell blinked. "Heavens no! What gives you such a silly idea?"  
  
"You're so beautiful I couldn't help but think it."  
  
The man blinked again and his smile finally fell, revealing surprise. "Beautiful? ME?"  
  
"Uh-huh..."  
  
"Odd...I never found myself attractive..." Mitchell's molten gold eyes slowly caught the amethyst ones that watched him so intently and, in one sweeping motion, he descended on him, catching his lips before he could so much as flinch in a passionate kiss. However, the act brought with it an unexpected surprise...a numbing wave of almost sickening cold. It seemed to flow right from the beautiful man's lips and into his body, freezing him up inside and terrifying him instantly. Something was VERY wrong with this!  
  
The man, whom he realized all at once was one of the ship's tenants, released him, and the icy grips of the cold closed in on him. He managed a soft cry before losing consciousness. The floor came at him in a rush, and the last thing he saw was the ghost staring down at him...and heard a giggle.  
  
~  
  
Trowa looked around, then ticked off another minute mentally. He had been counting to sixty for the last several minutes to keep track of the time, and Duo was still no where to be found. He was starting to worry about him. What if he was hurt?  
  
//He'll be fine,// a voice in his mind said, sternly. He nodded his agreement. Duo was a soldier, just like the rest of them. He could handle himself...  
  
...hopefully...  
  
Suddenly, a soft melody caught his ear and he blinked, recalling what Quatre had told him about the little girl ghost and her eerie music instantly. The Silencer swallowed as he felt his stomach drop from its place and his heart stop. //Oh no, please tell me she--//  
  
A soft, eerie music began to play, like that from a child's toy piano or a music box, and a soft child's voice started to sing. {{"Come with me to my special place..."}}  
  
He flinched, then gasped as a cold burst of air erupted from the right-hand fork and hit him, chilling him to the bone. He knew what it meant instantly. Even without ever seeing one, he knew what the sighs of a ghost were. Unexplainable cold spots, excess static electricity and strange appearances and/or sounds. //Oh no.//  
  
{{"Come to me, let me see your face.../come with me to a world of grace.../see how long you last..."}} A soft giggle caught him off-guard as he moved to find Duo, and a dark little form appeared in the center of the hall the braided youth had disappeared into only ten minutes ago. It was like the shadow of a small child had been cast right in front of him, because there was no body.just the shadow of a girl in a dress.  
  
"Little girl," Trowa said, bravely, denying the fear that crept into him upon seeing it. "What have you done to him?"  
  
She giggled. "He played with me."  
  
Trowa blinked as he remembered what Wufei had told him.  
  
/'She...she kept demanding I play with her, and when I said no she cut the boat loose and practically handed me the rope...'/  
  
"What did you do to him?!" Trowa demanded.  
  
"I'm glad he played with me. We'll have to play again some time." She giggled again, then faded from sight.  
  
Trowa growled, then paused as a soft cry caught his ear. "Duo!" Disregarding the little girl, he ran as fast as his legs would carry him down the hall, hitting, kicking, shoving doors open and looking inside momentarily before he hurried on. He had the worst feeling that something was wrong, and when the Deathscythe pilot didn't answer, it was confirmed. //God,// he thought, //PLEASE let him be all right!//  
  
And then, he froze as he came to a door that was neither open nor closed, merely ajar, and spotted the sign above it. He peeked inside, holding his candle up. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, but when they did, he gasped. "Duo!"  
  
The black-clad man was unconscious, wrapped in a blanket and shaking, with a fallen pile of sheets and his candle not far from him. The room was ice- cold.  
  
Trowa nearly dropped his own candle in shock, but he managed to get a grip on himself long enough to set it in a small golden candleholder nearby. He hastily knelt and took his friend into his arms, then gave him a gentle shake. "Duo," he whispered. "Please, wake up." He set his head carefully against the other's chest and was relieved to hear his heartbeat, but he was still shuddering so violently that one outside the situation might think he was having a seizure. Wrapping the blanket more tightly around him, he shook him again, this time with a bit more force. "Duo, can you hear me? Wake up!"  
  
He shifted in the green-eyed man's arms and he sighed with relief, but that relief quickly turned to horror as the half-conscious victim began humming a tune that made his hair stand on end, and slowly, he choked out a few soft words, carried by the awful melody, albeit quietly. "C-come with me.to my special place."  
  
"Oh no," Trowa whispered. The giggle rang out again and he mentally cursed himself for listening to the braided youth's harping about splitting up. He winced as Duo continued to lilt out the song, his eyes sliding open only partially as he snickered between verses. "Damn it..."  
  
"See...how...long...you...last..."  
  
****  
  
TBC 


	4. Madness

Xandra: My God, another update. Yay, go me! *claps for self* Okay, now, in all seriousness. I've changed the formatting of the story and gone back to edit most of my mistakes out of the other chapters, so now here's the key to help clarify what you see:  
  
{{"Singing"}}  
  
{"Unheard/outer-worldly voices"}  
  
The two of those used to be the same thing, but it didn't make sense, so I divided them according to some of my newer stories. Okay? That's done. All of the formatting info is on my profile for those who don't recognize things. For anyone who's read the newly uploaded old chapters, complete with edits, and are thinking 'what is she talking about?' don't worry, this applies to my older readers. All right? Enjoy, because this one is good!  
  
****  
  
The Devil's Triangle: Trapped on the Obsidian Rosemary  
  
By Xandra  
  
Chapter Four: Madness  
  
****  
  
Trowa ignored the soft giggles that echoed through his ears as he carried the brunette victim down the hall, wrapped in a mottled blanket with the other four coverings stacked neatly on his stomach. He was pale and shaking, and every time that innocent giggle rang out, he chuckled to himself, weakly, and every time it sounded all the more unstable. //I shouldn't have listened, I shouldn't have listened!// his mind chanted, the terrible mantra making him want to shrivel up and die. If Duo was really hurt, that guilt would be on his conscience for the rest of his life.  
  
//Calm down,// he thought, slowly. //Be rational. Ghosts cannot harm people...he's just unconscious...//  
  
A cold wind struck his back and he shivered, but it didn't slow him down. The last thing he needed was to be confronted by the little beast that had done this. He kept on going.  
  
He climbed the dark stairs and headed silently down the hallway, his candle glowing like a beacon in the thickness of the black evil he felt closing in around him. As he marched down the hall toward the ballroom, he was relieved to see the glows of other candles, and the faces around them, reflecting the light. It was reassuring to know that they were all still there, still safe.  
  
He stepped into sight and they all turned to stare at him, but Heero was the first to react.  
  
"DUO!" With amazing speed, the perfect soldier bolted to his side, a look unlike any other he had ever worn on his face. It was caught between terror and fury. He snatched the youth from his friend's arms.  
  
Trowa sighed as Quatre bounded up, worry written all over his face. "Trowa?"  
  
He didn't say anything. What COULD he say? 'Sorry, Duo was attacked by a ghost because I let him out of my sight'? Not a chance!  
  
Heero carried his koi to the couch, where he knelt and laid him down, touching his cheek momentarily before standing upright and turning to Trowa. The look in his eyes made the green-eyed pilot start. "You let him get hurt," he growled, his hands curling into fists at his side, shaking violently. The flame of Trowa's candle seemed to reflect in his eyes, the effect transforming him into a mortal demon, fury radiating off of him in waves.  
  
He thought one thing as the other took a step toward him. //I am going to die.//  
  
"I trusted you to protect him!" Heero bellowed, his voice echoing and jarring dust from the columns holding the ceiling up.  
  
"Heero, calm down!" Quatre cried, stepping between his lover and his friend with determination on his pale features. "What good is getting angry going to do?"  
  
"It will make me feel better." With that, he knocked the blonde out of the way, sending him staggering to the side, only to overbalance and fall to the dusty floor. He grabbed Trowa by his throat, lifting him cleanly off the floor without any visible ounce of effort, then shook him hard enough to make his head snap back, painfully. "WHAT. HAPPENED. TO. DUO. Tell me now, or I swear, I will start breaking your bones one by one."  
  
"I don't know," he choked. "I-I left him alone..."  
  
"WHAT?!" Heero roared. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO *PROTECT* HIM FOR ME!"  
  
Trowa couldn't think of anything to defend himself with. His mind was starting to blur--probably from lack of air--and he was beginning to panic, a rare reaction to anything. He couldn't breathe and he had a very dangerous man angry with him!  
  
Suddenly, with a growl, Quatre tackled Heero from the side, knocking him to the floor. In reaction, he released his captive, sending him flying in another direction. The two rolled across the floor, the larger attempting to strangle the smaller other man.  
  
Trowa landed hard on the wooden floor, his head ringing as he gasped for air and struggled to reclaim his senses. He was dizzy and all he could do was sit by and watch through hazy vision as his beloved fought for his life after making such a dumb move. "Heero, stop it!" he cried. "Don't hurt him, PLEASE!"  
  
Suddenly, Quatre was pinned to the floor and the soldier ripped his handgun from his waistband and cocked it, pointing it right at the blonde's forehead. Cerulean eyes widened in terror.  
  
And then, the dizzy, green-eyed man saw a dark figure loom over Heero. He knew it wasn't Wufei--he wore white--but who could...  
  
"Stop."  
  
Trowa came to his senses and blinked. "Duo," he sighed.  
  
The dark-haired mercenary looked up at his boyfriend, who was as white as a ghost and wobbling on his own feet, eyes at half-mast. He had to grip Heero's broad shoulders to keep from falling down. "That's...enough...stop now."  
  
"Duo..." Disregarding Quatre completely, he disarmed his gun and stood up, catching the braided baka before he could lose his balance. His voice unstable, commanding roar dropped to a worried whisper, he asked, "Are you all right? What happened?"  
  
He opened his mouth to answer, but instead, he sneezed. "Eh-chew!" His head fell forward against Heero's chest. "Ohhh, that huuurt..."  
  
The Winner heir got up and dusted himself off, then made his way to Trowa, who shook his head violently to regain his vision. He knelt and offered him a hand. "You all right?"  
  
"Why did you do that?" he asked, instantly.  
  
Quatre smiled and shook his head, as if he'd just been asked the dumbest question in the world. "Did you expect me to stand by and let him kill you?"  
  
"Well..." He blinked. "I guess not..."  
  
"See, there you are." The blonde offered him a hand up, which he accepted.  
  
His koi pulled him to his feet and the two of them slowly approached the old couch, where Duo lay, sneezing up a storm with his hands clasped over his mouth, Heero kneeling at his side with worry all over his face.  
  
It was as if he HADN'T almost killed his best friend moments ago. Trowa winced as he fingered the sore spots on his throat--ones, he knew, would become deep bruises. He was already having trouible swallowing from those alone. The thought of how Heero could have crushed his larynx unnerved him to no end. It had been a LONG time since he'd felt he couldn't trust the other ex-pilot, but the apprehensive suspicion had been reawakened, despite all else. Heero had almost killed him.  
  
"Duo, just relax. You're not going anywhere."  
  
"B-but I--eh-chew!--left the s-supplies in the hall! I--eh-CHEW!--oww. I g- gotta go get 'em!"  
  
Heero shook his head, brushing his sweat-drenched bangs from his face with one hand while palming his chest with the other to keep him down. "I'll get them."  
  
"Oh NO you will NOT!" Quatre shouted, suddenly. Everyone looked at him and he scowled, pointing accusingly at the soldier. "YOU need to stay RIGHT HERE. NO ONE ELSE is going down there, you hear me? Every time someone goes down there, something strange happens and NOW someone's been hurt! We can do without the damn blankets and we have enough candles to get us through to the morning."  
  
Cobalt eyes narrowed, dangerously, and that eerily threatening air returned. "HE needs a blanket, if not several, and if I can get some from down there, I will go THROUGH you to make sure he's safe."  
  
Trowa raised his hands. "Stop it!" he croaked. His throat hurt and his voice was weak as a result, but it still had a good commanding tone to it. "I brought the damn blankets he dropped with us." He pointed to where they'd fallen, and they remained there, unfolded and thrown about, but they were there.  
  
The dark blue eyes softened and darted away from the blonde man, who huffed and rolled his eyes, bringing a tired hand to his forehead. "Duo," Heero said, softly, gently stroking his cheek affectionately with his thumb, "What happened to you?"  
  
He sniffled, and, as Quatre lit another candle and set it on the floor nearby, the fact that he had no color to his face became apparent. Save his flushed cheeks, he was as white as a ghost.  
  
A ghost. Trowa shuddered, silently.  
  
Duo tried to speak, but something in his eyes seemed to be fading, and with every breath his eyes began to dart around in his head, as if he were afraid of being attacked. His mouth opened and closed several times, but nothing came out, and he began to squirm.  
  
Heero pinned his best friend with the coldest stare possible, then turned soft eyes to his lover, gently holding him down as he began to shake and move around. "Shhh, it's all right. Just lay down." He accepted a blanket offered by the Winner heir and draped it over him.  
  
The braided boy agreed with a soft whine and laid back.  
  
"Now, Duo," he asked, slowly, "what happened?"  
  
"It was dark and...th-there were sp...spiders...I moved and...scared...t- that m-man..."  
  
Heero's eyes narrowed.  
  
Quatre gulped.  
  
Trowa frowned.  
  
"...and he said I was...and...fire...he..."  
  
"What? He WHAT, DUO?"  
  
Kneeling, Quatre shoved Heero away from him before he could get angry again, kneeling down and taking the babbling brunette's hand, as if it were his key to safety from the dark wrath of the other. Heero backed down, but only slightly. "Don't rush him," he whispered. "He's in shock, and I think he might have caught a chill on the Jade Prince..."  
  
"A chill!" Duo echoed, softly. "I-I-I...a ch-chilllll..." His eyes dimmed further--he looked ready and willing to close his eyes and never open them again.  
  
Trowa blinked as he examined him again. That was right! He'd jumped overboard to save Quatre in the storm and stayed in his wet clothes! He was wearing them NOW, and it had been pretty cold all day. He could catch pneumonia that way! Why hadn't he told anyone?  
  
With a soft pat to his cheek, the blonde boy whispered; "Duo."  
  
"Quaaaatre?"  
  
"Yes, Duo. Duo, wake up. Stay awake. Don't sleep."  
  
"I'm tyyyyred."  
  
"Shhh, quit that. Now, tell me about this guy. Did he hurt you, Duo?"  
  
The green-eyed onlooker nodded his silent approval. Quatre was studying child psychology, so he knew a good deal about how to talk to the unresponsive and confused. Another useful trait in his angel to add to the huge list.  
  
Duo blinked a few times. "N-no...he said...I was...was..."  
  
"Was?"  
  
"B-beautiful..."  
  
Heero's eyes were ablaze, but the rest of him stayed completely listless, save the brief twitch at the corner of his mouth that nearly became a snarl. If one weren't observant, he would look unaffected. But he was far from. He was furious.  
  
"He said that, huh?" Quatre looked at Trowa, who nodded, urging him on with a small shooing gesture. He nodded in return and patted his friend's hand. "Who was this?"  
  
"M-Mich--ell."  
  
"Mitchell?"  
  
"Uh-huh...h-h-he was a...an-gel...a ice angel...he k-kissed me..."  
  
The young millionaire, still clutching his hand, looked at Heero. NOW the anger was obvious, but so was the worry and annoyance. After all, how did one go about punishing the dead for such an act?  
  
His voice steadied to a normal tone and pitch, as if everything was normal, but the words were morbid ones. "He kissed me, nice and soft, but it was so cold I died...I'm dead!" He grinned, frighteningly. "Shinigami is dead! The GOD of DEATH is DEAD! That's FUNNY!" And he laughed.  
  
Heero gave Quatre a gentle but commanding nudge and he retreated, allowing the perfect soldier a shot at the raving boy. "Why did TROWA"--he spat the name as if it were poison and the Silencer withheld a hurt wince--"leave you alone, Duo?"  
  
"I wanted to be ALL by myself so I could be a big boy!" he cried, suddenly, sitting up. He grinned and lowered his voice to a soft, childlike whisper. "I'm a big boy now, Mommy...I'm a big DEAD boy!" Suddenly, Duo began to cackle, and all three other pilots jumped a measure.  
  
The little girl's giggle rang out.  
  
Jerking his head up to look around, Trowa saw no trace of the shadowy poltergeist and heard no hint of her music. Just that one giggle, and then all was silent.  
  
Heero lost it, immediate paranoia all over his expression as he leapt spryly to his feet. "What...the HELL...was THAT?"  
  
"The little girl," Trowa said, surprised as he found his partner's voice echoing his in perfect sync. They exchanged a brief, startled glance between them.  
  
"Little girl, little girl!" Duo cheered, suddenly, kicking his feet like a child and cackling insanely. Heero held him down on the couch, but it didn't stop his laughter.  
  
"Duo! DUO! Get a HOLD of yourself, damn it!"  
  
"Heero, DON'T!" Quatre cried. "She did something to him!"  
  
"SHE? The little girl ghost you people have been raving about? Did SHE do this to him?" He got up and glared at the red corridor that lead to the residential area. "If she did ANYTHING to him--!"  
  
"She did nothing but scare him," a nasal voice spat, suddenly. Wufei stepped from the opposite corridor and descended the steps to approach them. "It's a natural reaction to sensory overload--his nervous system is out of whack from the chill he's no doubt come down with, and the smallest scare could send him into delirium, and if he encountered another ghost, it was bound to be more than a small one. Between that and the fever I'm quite sure he's suffering from, he does seem pretty well insane."  
  
Trowa raised an eyebrow as the others stood silent. "I thought you worked with corpses."  
  
"I'm still a doctor, corpses or not."  
  
"And exactly HOW long were you standing in there before you decided to come out?" he asked, dryly.  
  
Wufei glanced down at Heero, arms folded, dark eyes silently berating him into the floor. "Before Duo saved Quatre's life from this weak-minded, weak- hearted foolishness."  
  
He didn't react.  
  
The Chinese forensic scientist shooed he and Quatre away from the couch and Duo, kneeling and taking his wrist in his hand. He tapped a place on the delirious man's hand and he immediately calmed down while Wufei took his pulse and put a cautious hand to his forehead.  
  
The others looked on in concern and worry, remaining as still as death throughout the short examination.  
  
Finally, he turned and looked at them. "A moderately high fever, and the lymph glands along his throat are swollen from fending a developing cold off. He caught a chill after jumping ship back on the sailboat, then disregarded it completely, as he's used to doing with such things. I would assume his body set to work fighting it off so he could function without a hitch, but the glands reached capacity with unnatural speed and he's suffering for it." He gestured Quatre to the blankets, which he brought quickly, then covered the patient with another one and tucked the edges under him to keep him somewhat still. "He'll sweat out the fever tonight if we can keep him warm enough, and by tomorrow morning, he'll be better-- he'll probably have the sniffles."  
  
Trowa sighed, folding his arms across his chest as a cold breeze rustled across his back. "Better that than this, I suppose."  
  
"Better indeed, an acute delusional fever is a dangerous thing. He's bound to be unstable until it breaks, so we have to keep right here and make sure he stays warm and still." He looked at Heero. "Are you getting any of this, Yuy?"  
  
He nodded, solemnly.  
  
Wufei's eyes seemed to reflect brief concern, but the annoyance was more prominent. "Good, because he's your responsibility and no one else's. And as for your fit at Trowa...you should be ashamed of yourself. A grown man, throwing a temper tantrum and attempting to kill others over something so trivial--honestly, I wonder how you can sleep at night."  
  
Before it could escalate into yet another violent encounter, Quatre stepped between them, shaking his head. "No, stop. It's that dark force again, preying on our emotions and pitting us against each other. That's the last thing we need, trust me--we have to stick together or we'll never make it out alive." He looked at the dull-eyed Deathscythe pilot lying on the couch before him. "I think we've proven this already." He lifted his eyes. "So, we've established that there is at least one ghost, if not several. No one has been attacked while with another person, only alone, meaning that they'd prefer not to be seen by the mass, so if we stay together as much as possible, we should be all right for now. I think we ought to search around a bit tomorrow, though, and keep a good eye out for anything suspicious. NO ONE leaves this ballroom until morning, am I clear?"  
  
Trowa and Wufei nodded, obediently, but Heero just sighed in defeat.  
  
Quatre nodded. "Good," he sighed. "We should try to get some rest now-- tomorrow, we find a radio and start in on this ship. TOGETHER."  
  
**** ~  
  
In the dark of night, when all five intruders were asleep, a familiar specter watched them, poutingly.  
  
{"Oh, they won't play my game!"} the soft voice whined. {"I want them to play my game!"}  
  
Her music box in hand, she shuffled through the air to the couch in the ballroom, where she stood herself on the back to look around. Two lay on the floor in each other's arms, the taller one the man that had talked with (or yelled at) her in the hallway after the boy on the couch played with Mitchell. There was the boy that Toby talked to, the one who had Jake, and there was the one that was so mean he wouldn't play at all. Then, there was somebody new. He was laying with Mitchell's friend.  
  
She grinned, impishly, and held up her music box as the lid lifted slowly back to reveal the rotating black gem. {"You can come play with us now."} With that, she floated away.  
  
~  
  
Heero's eyes snapped open as his acute hearing detected the faintest sound of metal vibrating, chimes sounding softly in the distance in an odd tune. At first, he thought he'd imagined it, but that didn't help him disregard the thought. He'd already been told of the music box the little girl carried with her, the eerie tune she played on it, and the evil 'games' she insisted on playing. The moment he heard the sound, it took everything he had to keep from moving to follow it. Instead, he peered at the form cuddled up to his, making out the soft, childlike features through the gloom, and sighed.  
  
Wufei's scalding words flashed into his mind. /'...He's your responsibility and no one else's.'/  
  
If he left, Duo would be open to an attack by that evil creature or her minions--by that MITCHELL he had raved about. He didn't want that.  
  
And then, as his eyes passed over the serene faces of the others, he recalled what had been discovered. The ghosts didn't attack groups or pairs, and besides, all of them were close at hand, Wufei in one of the overstuffed chairs nearby and Quatre and Trowa intertwined on the floor. Duo was safe here--as safe as he could be, in fact.  
  
But he would be safer if his protector had an idea of what to expect from this thing that had threatened him.  
  
The song rang out from the forbidden corridor, the soft, childish chiming like that of a toy piano, and that eerie giggle rang out.  
  
That did it. Carefully removing Duo's arms from around his barrel, he gripped the headrest above him and pulled his body into an upright position, then spun around and set his socked feet on the floor. The air was ice cold and bit into his skin uncomfortably like millions of little glass shards, but thankfully, he was wearing jeans, so it wasn't so bad. He tucked his sleeping beloved in again as he shifted into his abandoned spot, unconsciously taking advantage of the warmth of the indent, greedily. He rolled his eyes. //You can be so selfish at times,// he thought, wryly, brushing his bangs from his face. The baka nuzzled his hand as it came within range and he smiled, briefly, before reclaiming his sneakers and heading off to find the little beast that was behind all this.  
  
~  
  
It didn't even occur to him that his being alone might draw more attention than hers. She giggled. {"Now...now we can start the REAL game."}  
  
~  
  
The soldier marched silently through the dark hallway, refusing to bring a candle out of stubbornness and distaste at the thought of being discovered breaking the 'rules.' He didn't need Quatre to give him a speech or go insane and beat him into the floor with one of the articles of ancient furniture. That was a HIGHLY undesired outcome.  
  
The music led him on through the dark corridors, and every time he heard that giggle, he fingered his handgun tensely, ready and willing to shoot a hole in the ship's hull if it would rid it of the creature hiding in the darkness. The further he traveled, blindly feeling along walls for doors and corners, the more he cursed himself for not bringing a candle, but the longer he walked, the more he noticed the glittering always simple feet away from him. He was being led somewhere, he knew that much. She was playing mind games, THAT was for certain.  
  
Finally, he came to another hallway, this one lit slightly by the presence of an open door on the right wall with a porthole within. It looked like pale moonlight, but it was funny, the fact that he hadn't seen that light through any of the other portholes he'd passed on his journey. It screamed of a trap, but he was armed.  
  
The glitter he had seen remained ahead of him, but now, it was a shine, the light reflecting off a small, golden box with a large black gem in the center. It was an oxymoron in itself, technically impossible--to have light refract through an opaque jewel with no color--but it happened, reflecting little glowing shadows on the walls and floor, and barely visible on the edges of the little box were pale little hands with cute little pink fingernails.  
  
He had a brief flash of the girl whose death he'd caused, but he shook it off. This was a different spirit, a real one, not one conjured by his mind in a moment of weakness. "Enough games, little girl," he said, tonelessly. "Why are you doing this to us?"  
  
She giggled and he felt the hairs on the back of his neck go rigid, but he didn't back down. Instead, he squared his shoulders, straightened his back and waited for the response--which never came.  
  
Annoyed, he stepped toward the glitter, but it moved away and faded into the blackness, along with the music. Without that distraction, the bright light pouring through the open cabin door drew his eyes once more, but he fought the temptation to enter and moved to go back.  
  
And a figure blocked the light from within, casting a monstrous shadow across the floor and onto the wall.  
  
He froze and his eyes darted back, his hand moving cautiously toward his gun, but the figure was gone just as quickly as it had appeared. Still, he was hooked now. No mere little girl, ghost or not, could cast a monstrous shadow like that. He recalled hearing Quatre rave about a man with a knife, then being told of 'Mitchell,' the male spirit that had robbed Duo of his health and sanity, if only for a short while. Somehow, he had a feeling they weren't isolated incidences. This bastard, who or whatever he was, was going to do some explaining, even if it meant the soldier shooting HIMSELF and kicking his ass on his OWN field.  
  
Cautiously, Heero paced to the wall and followed it to the open door, drawing his weapon from the waistband of his pants, then whipped around, aiming it into the room with every intention of shooting at the first movement.  
  
He was met with a child's cabin, empty with dust-covered toys strewn about here and there and a pair of unmade beds.  
  
Sighing, he lowered the gun slightly with a quick glance around to make certain he was alone, then approached the little bed, carefully using the toe of his sneaker to lift the sheets away from the undercarriage. Nothing there, thankfully. He checked the second too, but it was the same case. With that done, he glanced around, then checked the open door's number. A tarnished number fifteen met him, and he noted it.  
  
And then, he recognized the uncomfortable presence against his thigh. It had been ever-present, but he'd been so busy for the last few hours that he'd forgotten it completely. Quickly delving into his jeans pocket, he retrieved the unlabeled book he'd borrowed from the wheelhouse.  
  
The Voyage Log! He skimmed through it quickly to the last trip, then located room number fifteen and checked it.  
  
# 15--TOBIAS JAMES (aNb JaYK)  
  
He frowned, thoughtfully, as he pocketed the book. A child had meddled with this book--the child who had resided in this room, no doubt. Tobias and...Jake? Why had he been lead here?  
  
Something caught his sharp senses and set him on edge again, and he quickly reentered the room, immediately detecting the scent of blood in the air. He traced it to the little beds, and sure enough, in the one furthest from the door, there was a large spot of brown on the sheets. Wrinkling his nose in distaste for the sight and odor, he threw the sheets back further and took a seat on a clean space, running a cautious finger over the spot where the stain was deepest. It was roughly the size of an encyclopedia, having seeped right into the mattress itself, and sure enough, when he reached the focal point of the entire mess, he found a damaged section of sheets that went right into the bed, about four inches deep and two long. He found another not too far from the first, and another not far from that. There were at least five of them.  
  
Heero scowled in disgust. Someone very small had been killed here, stabbed to death in this very bed. A child had died here. Quatre had spoken of seeing a child killed by a man with a knife when he'd come back from this area, and now that he was more alert and logical, he spotted a candle like the ones they had in the ballroom sitting on a small chest of drawers. Yes, this was the room, and now that little boy had a possible name. Tobias James. //Repulsive.//  
  
A sudden loud creek jerked his attention elsewhere, to a door he hadn't noticed before, which suddenly sat ajar.  
  
This screamed of trouble--but it wasn't the only thing that screamed. A blood-curdling shriek rang through the room without warning, sending the dark-haired man onto his feet, his gun cocked and held pointed toward the partially-open door. The sound of such a cry might have terrified others, but it hadn't scared him too much--because he knew it was a memory from what had passed, the scream of that child as he died in this room. It made him nauseous, but he had read enough about ghosts to know that violent ones, poltergeists, brought their pasts with them sometimes. This murderer ghost was close by.  
  
Already, the air was growing cold, and goosebumps broke out across his skin, but he didn't waver for a minute. He kept the gun on the door, slowly pacing away from the beds toward it. The icy feel around him continued to grow stronger, until he reached out to touch the doorknob. It scalded his skin, it was so cold, but that meant one thing--there was a ghost nearby.  
  
Before he could open it, however, another sound drew his attention. One inside the room with him. A chuckle pulled his attention away from the door and back to the bed, and lo and behold, there stood the hazy shadow of a man, towering over the bed, a sharp implement extending from his right hand.  
  
Heero cocked his weapon, watching the form as it brought the knife up above its head, turned toward him as if staring at him.  
  
The chuckling started out soft, but slowly elevated in strength and volume until the room was filled with bone-chilling, insane laughter. "Come play!" a strong voice growled, laughingly. "Come play with me."  
  
Knowing he had little chance of fighting this thing and coming out unscathed, the youth stepped back and pulled the door open, stepping inside the next room with a quick glance around, then shut the door and backed away from it.  
  
Even with the murderer in the next room, this one was colder. Why was that?  
  
{{"Mmmmm ..."}}  
  
He whipped around and froze, eyes wide, his gun aimed, as a soft, feminine voice began to echo around the room. It wasn't the little girl, he realized, as he listened. There was no music, no soft giggle--it was more mature. The voice of a woman, humming quietly to herself. He couldn't see her, but her voice was there, and it began to sing...  
  
{{"Fare thee well my dear, I must be gone and leave you for a while/though I roam a~away I'll come back again/though I roam ten-thousand miles, my dear/though I roam ten-thousand miles..."}}  
  
He blinked, slowly glancing around, the presence of the poltergeist in the next chamber completely slipping his mind. Where was that voice coming from?  
  
{{"How fair though art, my bonny lad/so deep in love am I/and I never will prove false to the bonny lad I love/till the stars fall from the sky, my dear/till the stars fall from the sky..."}}  
  
Curious, he knelt down on the king-sized four-poster next to the door he'd come through and crawled across its width to peer over the edge at the floor nearest the porthole window.  
  
There he found the singer--a young woman, sitting with her knees pulled up into her chest, her grand gown spread out around her in a sea of white frills, long hair cascading down her back and over her shoulders like liquid copper, reflecting the dim light beautifully. She sat there all alone, singing softly, eyes closed, and her voice lulled him to no end, to the point that he nearly abandoned the gun still clutched in his hand in favor of listening to her.  
  
{{"The sea will never run dry, my dear/nor the rocks ever melt with the sun/but I never will prove false to the bonny lad I love.../till the stars fall from the sky.../till the stars fall from the sky..."}} She began to hum her melody again for a moment, rocking gently from one side to the other.  
  
"What a pretty song," he heard himself say, absently.  
  
She paused and peered up at him, and he almost gasped at what he was faced with. What a pretty girl, too! She looked barely older than he was, twenty- one at the very most, with eyes so wide and filled with life that she couldn't have EVER been human. She smiled softly at his surprise. "I didn't know I had an audience, but I'm glad you enjoyed my singing." She giggled and reached her hand back over her head to him.  
  
Dully curious, he accepted it, and he was dully surprised to find it was resilient, but soft and warm, not at all callused by hard work. This--this was a real lady. "Who are you?" he asked.  
  
She smiled. "What a silly question!"  
  
"Humor me," he insisted.  
  
"I'm Sarah, of course!"  
  
//Sarah...// "Hello, Sarah."  
  
She giggled, softly. Everything about her seemed very delicate and lovely-- and yet, at the same time, she was fragile. Like a sculpture. One blow and she would cease to be. It would be so easy to do--he could destroyer her completely without even a tiny bit of effort.  
  
And it would be fun.  
  
He shook the sudden sadistic thought off and she blinked at him.  
  
"Is something wrong?"  
  
"N-no..." What was he doing here anyway? Why had he come? And why did he keep getting the feeling something was wrong here? "I-I should go."  
  
"Why? Have I done something wrong?"  
  
Before he could answer, however, the childlike shriek rang out and he jumped off the bed, leaving her behind to stare after him as if she hadn't heard it. He slammed the main door open and burst into the hallway, his handgun clutched so tightly in his hand that his knuckles were white from blood-loss and his fingers ached.  
  
The little girl's giggle echoed around the residential corridor, but he wasn't going to run from her. She was causing all this, he just knew it. Somehow, she was behind it all.  
  
"Come play with me!" she cried.  
  
/'Come play with me.'/ The murderer had said those exact words to him.  
  
His mind's intelligent thought-processes completely abandoned him, leaving a primal need for survival in its place, raw and dangerous. He spotted the glittering of the black jewel up ahead of him and took a shot at it without thinking, but it faded out. That didn't stop him, though. He fired into the darkness several more times before he could finally find the sanity to stop. Tired and flirting with the idea of losing his mind right there, Heero collapsed to his knees, the gun falling from his weak hands, which flew to his ears as two songs broke the eerie silence.  
  
{{"Fare thee well my dear, I must be gone and leave you for a while..."}}  
  
{{"Come with me to my special place/come to me, let me see your face..."}}  
  
Voices around him were slowly seeping into his mind, and he felt all rational thoughts spinning out of control. It felt as if his head would implode if they didn't stop. "Shut up!" he shouted, fighting to keep a hold on himself. Every thought, every voice was painful. And it wouldn't go away. "STOP it!"  
  
//'Where are you?'//  
  
//'Come play with me!'//  
  
//'What's happening?'//  
  
//'Where are you, Richard?'//  
  
//'What are you doing?'//  
  
//'Let's play a game!'//  
  
"Play!" the girl shrieked above them all. "You will PLAY with me! PLAY WITH ME!"  
  
And then, a new voice came into his mind, and it brought a deadly calm to him as everything flooded away. It brought the ultimate answer, the one action that could stop this terrible pain.  
  
//Kill them,// it said. //Kill them ALL.//  
  
****  
  
TBC 


End file.
